


The Enemy Within Through Outbreak

by PulchritudinousPain



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Complete, Developing Relationship, Double Agents, F/M, Fighting The Darkness (Supernatural), Force Bond (Star Wars), Graphic Depictions of Illness, Graphic Description of Corpses, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:54:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24401644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PulchritudinousPain/pseuds/PulchritudinousPain
Summary: Rey has moved to Coruscant where she is a healer in training. A chance encounter with an intriguing stranger named Ben, a discovery of strange new abilities and a deadly viral outbreak will test Rey to her limits.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Close Encounters of the Force Kind

“BB-8? What time is it?” Rey asked, sleepily, her eyes still shut. No response. Rey sat bolt upright. “BB-8? She called louder. Where was that droid?

“Poe already left with him,” Rose called from the bathroom. “He was trying to wake you half an hour ago, but you wouldn’t budge apparently.”

“Fuck,” Rey bit. “And none of you thought to wake me? I’m going to be late!”

“We did. You looked like you needed the lie in,” Rose sang back, chipperly. 

Rey inhaled and exhaled deeply through her nose, her jaw clenched, hands rubbing her face irritably. She was not a morning person, and Rose’s sunny disposition could be grating before she had her first caffeine hit. Rey extricated herself from her warm bed and examined herself in the mirror. She looked like warmed up hell, she thought. She could use a good shower to wake up, but luckily she’d showered the night before because there wasn’t time now that her day had started so badly. Her hair wasn’t so greasy that it couldn’t last another day without a wash. It would be fine if she just pulled it back into her trademark buns.

Rey traded her nightdress for her day wear. She’d change into scrubs and sneakers at the hospital. Rey didn’t own many clothes, so choosing from her limited wardrobe was never too complicated. Pants, shirt, draped wrap, belt, boots. Done. 

“Is there coffee?” Rey called to Rose.

“Here,” Rose smiled, handing her a cup. “I put in extra milk so you can drink it faster,”

“You’re an angel among mortals,” Rey smiled. “Best house-mate ever.” She gulped down the coffee, quickly brushed her teeth, washed her face, tied back her hair and applied the most basic of makeup, then ran out the door with a piece of fruit wedged between her jaws. She could eat and drive.

Rey jumped on her speeder and headed out into the peak morning traffic. The lane-ways were more jammed today than normal. It was her own fault. If she’d got up on time she could have missed the peak period, but now she was stuck behind an Azumel in a low-flying cloud car. “Take the upper lanes, asshole!” Rey shouted. “That’s what they’re for.”

Rey wished she could afford something better than her hunk of junk speeder, but there’s only so much a intern’s salary could afford. Until she qualified as a healer at the end of the year, she’d have to put up with the poor man’s traffic conditions. At least she had her speeder. She hated catching public transport as it was crowded during the day and it could be dangerous when she was on night shifts. There were all sorts of creeps out at those hours, not that Rey couldn’t handle herself. She usually was a pretty good shot with a blaster and was very skilled with a staff, which she usually carried as a warning that she was not to be messed with.

Rey finally reached the hospital. She pulled into the car park and sped round the levels searching for a parking space, only to be stuck behind a cruiser, taking it’s time. Rey tapped her foot and checked her watch. She had ten minutes until her shift started. It usually took five to get from the car park to the ward, and she still had to change into her scrubs.

“God damn move,” Rey grumbled, tail-gating the painfully slow cruiser. 

Eventually they came upon and empty space. The cruiser moved past it, so Rey assumed it was hers for the taking, but then the cruiser started to reverse in. Rey was now blocking the way and this asshole wasn’t even going to stop. He was going to hit her!

Rey pumped her horn and raised her arm gesturing towards the front of her vehicle before reversing out of the way. The driver turned and stared at her for a moment. Rey shot him an irritated look. She didn’t have time for this.

As soon as the cruiser had parked, she took off, rushing her parking job and running over the footbridge to the main building of the hospital. Her ward was three floors up on the ninth floor.

“Hold the lift!” Rey called to the man in front of her. He obliged, his long fingers protruding well past the edge of the door.

Rey rushed into the lift, jabbing at the button for level nine, not glancing at the imposing figure in the lift next to her.

“Thanks,” Rey said.

“Oh, it’s you. Nice fucking driving.”

Rey looked incredulously at the dark haired man. Oh, she thought, the cruiser driver. Rey countered with, “Well if you didn’t stop-start every 20 meters like some octogenarian who should have handed in his license when the glaucoma set in, I wouldn’t have been right up your arse!”

Ben snorted. He liked this tiny woman’s moxie. “Sorry. Don’t mind me. I’m just here seeing my estranged mother. She’s in palliative care. Let’s just say, I’ve not been eager to get here.” 

Rey felt like a heel, having a go at a man with a dying mother. Fuck. “Sorry about your mother’s illness. I’m just in a rush to get to work and patience isn’t one of my virtues.”

“Forget it. I’m Ben.” He offered his hand. Rey shook it politely.

The elevator doors open and Rey backed out at a run. “Rey. Sorry – gotta go.” Ben slammed his hand against the elevator door, preventing it from closing and called to her.

“Hey Rey, do you maybe want to get a cup of coffee later? I wouldn’t mind finding about the other virtues you lack,” he winked.

Rey blushed, looked at her watch and said, “Uhh, okay, but only if it’s vending machine coffee. Quality coffee is for people with time and money, of which I have neither.” Her next break was in 3 hours. She told him to meet her at the elevator then took off for the change rooms.

Ben watched her run, her three buns bouncing on the back of her head. Weird choice for a hair-style, he thought, but supposed it practical in a hospital setting. Kept it out of those captivating green eyes. His eyes then settle lower down. Nice figure, lithe. He waited until she was out of sight before withdrawing his hand, allowing the door to close.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben rode the elevator to the fifteenth floor. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stand to be around his mother for three hours just to have a cup of coffee with a pretty girl but least he had something good to look forward to. He had a fair idea of how this meeting with his mother was going to go and he’d probably need time to cool off and get his head straight afterwards before meeting Rey. 

Ben asked the nurse at the desk for Leia Organa’s room and she directed him. He peeked in at the door.  
She was asleep, much to Ben’s relief. Ben picked up the chart at the foot of her bed. The chemotherapy drugs and a pretty heavy dose of morphine only just administered according to the paperwork. She’d probably be out for a while.

Ben took a seat and pulled out his comlink. He might as well check his messages, he thought. His boss never left him too long without giving some directive or another.

Eventually Leia roused and Ben shut off the device and shuffled forward in his chair.

“Hey, mum. How’re you feeling?” he asked, gently.

Leia laughed, then coughed. “Come on now. You can sense how I’m feeling, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Like shit, but thanks for asking.”

Ben shrugged.

“How’s work?” Leia asked, her voice husky. It was a loaded question. Leia knew how to push all his buttons.

“Right out the fucking gate, mum? You want to pick right up the same fight from over a year ago? It didn’t work then. It’s not going to work now,” Ben stormed.

“You should never have taken that job, Ben Solo. You could have had a more noble purpose than the lackey of a would be dictator,” Leia stated, still fierce even in her obviously weakened state.

“He’s not a dictator, mother. He’s the leader of the First Order. It’s a legitimate political party, just like your beloved Resistance. Besides, chief of security is not a lackey position. I take my role very seriously,” Ben said.

“Too seriously,” Leia retorted.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Deadly seriously,” Ben snarled.

Leia glared at him. Ben glared back. He knew how to push her buttons too.

“Don’t you dare. Han would be so disappointed. I’ll never understand why you chose the dark side, Ben.”

“God, you sound just like Uncle Luke. Why the fuck do you think I’ve stayed away from both of you? I’m sick of these bullshit accusations. Snoke may not follow the Jedi ways but that doesn’t necessarily make him evil. You just think it does. You see everything as so black and white. Maybe if Uncle Luke hadn’t been such a failure of a teacher I would be a Jedi now, but you know I found the concept of the Jedi Order flawed. I won’t apologise anymore for dropping out and seeking an alternate pathway, and I don’t have to sit here and suffer your disappointment.”

“I’ve heard stories, Ben. Stories about what you’ve been up to this past year. The kind of people you’re working with. Rumours of this Kylo Ren,” Leia pressed.

“Fucking drop it, mother, or I’m leaving,” Ben threatened.

“Snoke isn’t gathering votes with campaign rallies anymore, is he Ben? He’s been using the political campaign process as a cover to build resources for a war, and he’s using Kylo Ren as his strong arm to intimidate those who won’t comply. No one ever heard of this Kylo Ren until after your father died. Why is that? Please, son, come home while you still have a chance. Come home before Snoke corrupts you completely.”

Ben shook his head, lips furiously thin biting back any further argument.

“I’m not here to discuss my work or Snoke or what happened when dad died. I’m here because you’re sick. I didn’t come here to fight. My life is none of your concern. You’re not going to be around much longer anyway. I just didn’t want to...I don’t know...not try to still be your son, but you’re just as pig headed and judgmental with cancer as you are perfectly healthy. I’m leaving. Here. Flowers...whatever.”

Ben stalked to the door angrily.

“Ben,” Leia called.

“Yes, mother?” Ben murmured, pausing.

“Come back tomorrow. I promise I won’t talk politics,” Leia said, gently.

“Then it’ll be an even fucking shorter conversation won’t it?” Ben snorted. 

“There’s plenty to say, son. We’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for.” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What’s it like being a healer?” Ben asked, sipping his bitter coffee.

“I’m not fully qualified yet,” Rey answered. “So I’m still rotating between departments. It’s complicated. As a healer, you not only have to specialise in a field of treatment, but you have to know how to diagnose and treat every species. The anatomy is different. The presentation of illness is different. It’s a lot to get your head around. At the moment I’m working in respiratory, but I want to specialise in emergency medicine.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Emergency medicine would allow me to help treat the wounded. Respiratory tends to be more infectious diseases and cancers. It’s a different kind of care. Slow, drawn out. I would rather help as many people as I can quickly. I think I’d be good in a war.”

“You think there’s going to be another war?” Ben asked.

“I don’t know,” Rey responded. “Politics really isn’t my thing. I just tend to go with my gut, and my gut tells me that I’m on the right track.”

She squirmed in her seat, uncrossing and recrossing her legs, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Right now her gut was telling her there was something special about this guy. For one thing, his body was a temple and those eyes, the way they pierced her. So intense. It was like there was a charge in the air between them. It made her skin tingle.

“So...what do you do?” she ventured.

“I’m head of security for a political figure,” Ben responded vaguely.

“Anyone I’d know?” Rey queried.

“Probably not,” Ben fluffed. Usually he’d talk himself up to impress a lady, but after the dressing down his mother had just given him for supporting Snoke, he really didn’t want to risk putting off Rey, even if she was ignorant of politics. 

The First Order weren’t well known for their pandering and sentimentality, like the Resistance, of whom his mother had been a founding member after the Empire fell. The First Order ruled with strength and precision and decisive action. Strong leadership, like Snoke’s, would always suffer from it’s detractors, who claimed he was behaving like a despot, but he got the job done.

After the fall of the Empire, there had been a boom in the spice trade that the newly reformed republic could not control. Snoke had been the first to seize upon the opportunity to impose harsher trade restrictions throughout the galaxy, to limit the damage done to the people by these mind-altering substances. At first, using Storm Troopers to enforce the trade restrictions had been a bad look, because of their association to the old Empire, but with Snoke’s political success and his methods of persuasion, he soon gathered supporters, including Ben. Politics wasn’t black and white anymore. The First Order were actually doing people good.

A turning of the tide was soon to happen, and Snoke was the likely one who would come out on top, not the Resistance. Ben had bet the relationship he had with entire family on it who were too ingrained in their old way, convinced their way was right because that’s what they’d fought the previous war for. They were having trouble adjusting to the new order of things because they saw signs of the dark side everywhere. Ben put it down to PTSD. They saw what they feared in Snoke but they also saw what they feared in Ben. It wasn’t his mum and dad’s fault, or his Uncle Luke’s, but they’d made life intolerable for Ben, accusing him of turning to the dark side of the force, so he chose to make his own way.

That was why he had started out working for Snoke, at least, simply because it had been the preferable choice between two shitty options. That was true in the beginning, at least, but the longer Ben stayed, the harder it became to make any other choice.

Rey was the sentimental type, Ben could tell. She was goodness and light but with something else, something with the potential to be interesting. She practically glowed golden, but there was strength too. He was drawn to her. It wasn’t purely a superficial attraction. She was force sensitive. He doubted even she knew for sure, but he could feel it’s pull. Force sensitives were rare these days, since the all the Jedi had been wiped out by the Sith. All but his mother and his uncle.

Snoke was an anomaly to have force power. So was Rey. Ben had inherited it from his mother and had been trained by both his uncle and Snoke to use it. Ben doubted there was anyone alive with as much knowledge of the force as he, or as little of it as Rey. Rey was as intriguing as she was beautiful simply because of her rarity. She was an uncut gem.

Ben listened to Rey talk on about her life story, her living arrangements and her pastimes. She was a sweet girl. Humble. She’d led a challenging life for the most part, on a remote desert planet. She was a fierce survivor, a scavenger turned healer. The only thing that had brought her success was her own drive to succeed. She’d brought herself up from nothing, from no one and nowhere. Ben wanted her. He was determined from that point on to have her, by any means necessary.

Rey excused herself to go back to work, but not before exchanging contact details with Ben. “Let me know next time you’ll be round this way. We hardly even got to talk about you, but this has been nice! We should do it again.” 

The corner of Ben’s mouth lifted in amusement. She may be force sensitive, but her instincts were way off. Nice was not a game he played. Not anymore.


	2. When I Get That Feeling, I Need Force Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey discovers that she has the ability to heal using the Force.

“Hey Rey, you want some coffee?” Poe called from the kitchen.

“You know it, buddy,” Rey called back from her bed. “You wanna bring it in here for me?”

Seconds later Poe appeared at her doorway, two mugs of medium dark roast in his hands.

“Is that an invitation?” Poe asked with a raised eyebrow.

Rey rolled her eyes. Poe, ever the flirt. She took the mug gratefully from his hands and allowed it to warm her own. She breathed in the fragrant steam and took a deep sip.

“Perfect, as always,” she said.

“Are you going to join Rose and I for breakfast this morning, m’lady, or are you going to sleep in until lunchtime again like you did yesterday?” Poe enquired.

“Hey, yesterday I wasn’t feeling well. I’m all better now and you know I’m no slacker. I’ll even make you pancakes,” Rey offered, generously, “if you do the dishes.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer,” Poe smiled. “I haven’t had a hot breakfast in ages.”

Rey finished her coffee while having a chat about nothing in particular with Poe, shooed him out of her room, then got dressed. She busied herself in the kitchen, whisking up the flour and eggs, milk, sugar and baking powder. Soon she had a stack of hot pancakes presented at the kitchen table and all three housemates took their seats.

“You’re feeling better today, then Rey?” Rose asked. “What do you think it was? Did you catch something from one of your patients do you think?”

“I doubt it. We’re very careful not to cross-contaminate when working with infectious patients. But you want to know something? It was the strangest thing. I was helping this woman with cystic fibrosis. She had pneumonia complicating her breathing. She was obviously struggling to breath and the oxygen didn’t seem to be helping her. She grabbed my hand and put it on her chest and then I just felt it.”

“Felt what? Her boobs?” Poe grinned. “Hot.”

“Shut up,” Rey laughed. “No. It was like something in me moved. I don’t know how to explain it, but, I think I healed her with my hand.”

“Bullshit,” Poe declared.

“I swear! She let go of my hand and was immediately breathing easier. I tell you though, I was knackered by the end of my shift. I’d never felt so drained. I needed that sleep in yesterday.”

“So, you’re saying you were worn out because you magically healed someone?” Rose observed, sceptically.   
“I’m not saying I’m magical or anything. I’m just saying that I felt this thing move through me and then a miracle happened and then I got sleepy.” Rey shoved pancake into her mouth and grinned.

“For a woman of science and medicine, you’re talking nonsense,” Rose accused.

“It’s not nonsense,” Rey pouted. “Anyway, it’s only happened that one time. As a woman of science I’d have to gather more data. If I try to heal more people with my hands and succeed, then you can both shut up and apologise to me for doubting,” Rey declared, smugly. 

“Be careful, Rey,” Rose warned. “I’m all happy to be proved wrong. I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

“What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll have to have an even longer nap? I’ll take it!” Rey laughed, dropping her dish in the sink for Poe. “Come on guys. It’s Sunday, we’ve no work and it’s a beautiful day. Lets go out.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben pulled into the parking garage at the hospital and steeled himself for yet another difficult conversation with his mother. She hadn’t kept to her word last week upon his second return and he hadn’t been back since because of it. She couldn’t help herself. It was in her nature to persuade others to follow her lead. Ben refused to to stop working for Snoke and they just couldn’t seem to bridge the gap.

Still, he had promised he would keep coming back, even if they couldn’t resolve their differences. She was still his mother, and she was on borrowed time. He wanted to be with her when the end came.

Ben took the elevator up to the fifteenth floor, considering stopping off on ninth to see if Rey was there. Maybe her shift ended soon. Maybe she’d already left for the day. It was late in the afternoon, he calculated.

He searched his feelings. Rey was here, in the building, but what the hell was she doing?

Ben punched the button for the ninth floor and stalked down the corridor until he found the room she was in. He waited in the hallway, not wanting to disturb the patient, but to confront Rey alone. 

“How are you feeling now, Mrs Everain?” Ben overheard Rey say.

“Much better. The wheezing has completely stopped.”

“That’s great news! You take care. I’ll be back to check on you later.” Rey exited the room, looking very pleased with herself until she turned and found Ben standing over her.

“Ben! What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Stopping you from making a very big mistake,” Ben replied. “You’re coming with me.”

“I’m working!” Rey said.

Ben waved his hand. “No. You’re taking a break.”

“I’m taking a break,” Rey mimicked. 

“You’re going to lead us somewhere private,” Ben commanded.

“I’m going to lead us somewhere private,” Rey parroted.

Rey led Ben to an empty patient room and shut the door.

“Now,” Ben demanded, “You’re going to tell me exactly why the hell you’re giving your life force away to complete strangers. Are you demented?”

“Is that what’s happening? I didn’t know. I was just experimenting, you know. This is all new to me. It happened last week. I wanted to know if it was a fluke or...wait...how do you know what I was doing? You weren’t even in the room!”

“I know about these things, okay? I’ve had training. I’m attuned to the force and you were fucking with the balance of it. That’s dangerous, Rey. You could get seriously hurt. Don’t do it again,” Ben growled.

“I was just trying to heal people to see if I could. These people are sick. I can handle it. I have handled it,” Rey claimed.

“You don’t know what you can handle. I do,” Ben asserted.

“You don’t even know me,” Rey exclaimed.

“No, but I know the force. There’s consequences to your actions, Rey. It’s not just healing you’re doing. You’re messing with power over life and death. I’m sure you have the most honourable intentions, but you’re untrained. You don’t know the difference between the light side of the force and the dark. You need a teacher.” Ben stepped forward and gently took Rey’s hand and cupped it in his own. “I could teach you. I could get to know you.”

Rey eyed him suspiciously. “What’s in it for you?”

“This,” Ben said, and he pulled her close and stole a kiss.

Rey pushed him away. “How dare you! How dare you come here and chastise me then put your...moves on me. Get out!”

Ben licked his lips, slowly, purposefully, never breaking eye contact. Rey suddenly realised the enormity of him and gulped. She was a scrappy fighter, she had to be growing up on Jakku before she emigrated to Coruscant when the New Republic reopened the planet, but she had usually carried a weapon. Right now all she carried was a pen and stethoscope.

It was with a heavy sigh of relief that she watched him walk to open the door, turn to take one last look at her, and walk away.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Who’s the girl, Ben?” Leia asked as soon as he entered her room.

Fuck. Of course his mother could feel her presence. Just because she was bedridden, didn’t mean she couldn’t sense her too, especially when Rey had started fiddling about with force healing.

“Leave it, mother,” Ben growled.

“What did you do?” Leia asked, accusingly.

“Nothing much,” Ben shrugged. “I tried to help her. She rejected my offer.”

“And you took it gracefully, I presume?” Leia challenged. 

“Better than dad fucking would have when he started pursuing you,” Ben bit. 

“You had to bring him into this, didn’t you?” Leia squared off. “You know what a sore subject your father is to me. Sure, your father was persistent, maybe even a little aggressive at times, but he didn’t have your abilities, Ben. I raised you to respect a woman’s choice. If you ever think about using the force to coerce that girl…”

“I’m not the monster you think I am, mother. Have I sunk so low in your estimation?” Ben snarled.

“I don’t know what you’re capable of anymore,” Leia admitted. “Not after the way your father died.”

“You keep blaming me for that! Father was protesting Snoke by his own choice. What did he expect charging into a campaign rally weapons loaded? That there wouldn’t be return fire? I was on duty, mother. It was my job to get Snoke out of there and I did my fucking job. Do you honestly think I didn’t want to go back for dad when I sensed him get injured? It tore me up inside. Snoke wouldn’t allow me to go back.”

“And yet you still work for him. Doesn’t that say a lot about who you’ve become,” Leia observed.

“I’d made my choice to work for Snoke before that rally, mother, and it would have been pointless to quit after. Dad was already gone. It was too late to make it right. It was a stupid, pointless fucking death and it changed nothing.”

“I wouldn’t say nothing. You’re here with me now. Your father went to that rally to try to bring you home again, Ben. In a way, he has.”

Ben gave an almost imperceptible nod. He didn’t want to lose another parent the way he had lost his father. It had cost him too much. The grief, the anger, had stirred dark feelings in him. He had wanted to strike out against Snoke, strike him down for preventing him from returning to his father’s side, but Snoke had sensed it and punished him in ways that had broken him. He had learned to accept his indenture to Snoke and hadn’t challenged him again. Ben didn’t want to admit to his mother that he was only with her because Snoke had allowed it in the hopes Ben would gain some intelligence about the Resistance. He was an informant against his own mother and he was on Snoke’s choke chain. So he was home again, but only until she died and certainly not for good.

“Tell me more about this girl,” Leia gently prompted. “Maybe you shouldn’t give up hope, just yet.”

“You’d like her,” Ben smiled. “She’s got balls, like you.”

Leia grinned.

“And stupid fucking hair, too.” He shook his head and smiled wistfully. 

“I haven’t worn my hair in those buns since before you were born, young man,” Leia said wagging her finger in mock protest.

“Yeah, but I saw the hologram message in R2-D2 when I trained with Uncle Luke. Geez, mum. What were you thinking?” Ben teased, good naturedly, his mood lightening with the change of subject.

“I was a diplomat. There was a standard of dress. It was a thing,” Leia shrugged. 

“You always did look your most beautiful when you were off duty,” Ben admitted. “It’s a shame you were rarely off duty.” The mood shifted again. Both parties were saddened.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you more, Ben,” Leia offered. “I’m sorry for the way things have gone for you in my absence. I’m here right now.”

Ben moved closer to his mother’s bedside and took her hand.

“Me too, mum. Me too.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh, my god. You must have been terrified! A force user?” Rose squealed.

Rey nodded, silent, still reeling from the revelation earlier in the day.

“Do you think he’s good or evil?” Rose wondered.

Rey shrugged. He hadn’t hurt her physically but he had mind controlled her to get her alone. It could go either way.

“And he thinks you’re one too?”

Rey nodded.

“Holy shit.”

Rey nodded again.

The two women sat on Rey’s bed and just stared into space in silent contemplation.

“What’re you going to do?” Rose eventually asked. “I mean...you’ve got powers. He felt you. I mean...he didn’t feel you...I mean...well...he did a little bit with the kissing but that’s not what I meant. He force felt you...oh god, why does this all come out sounding wrong?” Rose fumbled.

“I know what you mean, Rose. He sensed me using the force when he wasn’t anywhere near me. He tracked me down with it. He accused me of endangering myself. Said I didn’t know the difference between light and dark sides of the force. I mean, that’s stupid. Surely healing someone is using the light side of the force? Right? Saving someone’s life?”

“I’m not sure it’s that clear cut. Do you not know the story of Anakin Skywalker?”

“Which part? The part where he was the former Jedi two time traitor who ended the war or the part where he slaughtered people indiscriminately as a Sith?”

“Interfering with life and death was a Sith power that Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side to obtain. He renounced the Jedi and became Darth Vader because he had a pregnant wife he was scared would die, and he cared more about that one person than he did about the countless other lives he destroyed in his attempt to gain that power. Rey, you’ve just got it, without even trying.”

“Rose?” Rey asked quietly. “Do you think I might be evil because I try to stop people from dying?”

“Fuck, Rey. What a question!” Rose laughed. “Of course you’re not evil. Are you kidding me?”

“Seriously. I’m questioning everything right now. I like this power, Rose. I want this power but I can’t tell where it comes from. It’s in me. It’s all around me. How am I supposed to know if it’s light or dark, like Ben said? What if I’m not supposed to be doing what I’m doing at all? What if my gut feeling I’ve been following telling me to be a healer, telling me that it’s my calling, has really been the dark side of the force calling me all along? Am I playing god with this power? What if people are just supposed to live and die without me trying to prolong it? Isn’t that what nature intended? Isn’t that what balance is? What if I’m not supposed to intervene?”

“Rey, that’s not what balance is.”

“No?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know that you’d never stand by and let people suffer if there was anything you could do about it. There’s more to life than death, Rey. We’re not all here just to be born, exist and die. We find the balance with the deeds we do, with the choices we make, each day. You heal to ease suffering. If you see a friend in trouble, you help. If you see a person in hunger, you feed them. If you see a person in distress, you care for them and support them. You make good choices for those around you. Darth Vader wanted the power to save one life at the expense of all others. That was his imbalance. You would never make such a choice. You’re too selfless. You’re only questioning yourself right now because there aren’t more people like you.”

“So I should trust my instincts?”

Rose nodded then shrugged. “What else are you going to do?”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to ask Ben just because he’s got more of a clue than I do. Handsy prick.”

“Who is that guy?” Rose asked. “How has he been trained in the ways of the force?”

“I really don’t know,” Rey admitted. “He never gave me a last name.”


	3. Chaos and Disorder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A viral outbreak hits the hospital where Rey works.

Rey rubbed her eyes as she waited for the elevator to climb to level nine. It was the first time she’d been called in for a shift with only an hours notice, and at 3am, no less.

Pandemonium greeted her. She’d never seen so many healers on the ward. Droids seemed to weaving in and out of the healers who were tending to patients on gurneys in the hallways.

“I need respirators in rooms three and eight.”

“Excuse me, coming through.”

Rey stepped back, her back now pressed against the closed elevator doors, as a droid pushed through with a cart of building supplies.

Rey grabbed her best workmate, Jessel, as she walked past. “What’s going on?”

“You know those couple of patients we had with severe flu-like symptoms a couple of days ago? Well now there’s dozens flooding in and they’re really sick. Some might not make it by the end of the night. Dr Bliss thinks it’s a new contagion. She’s not taking any chances. She’s got the droids setting up quarantine areas, but patients are coming in so fast they’ve filled the rooms to capacity and they’re just sitting out in the hallways for now.”

The elevator bell rang and Rey shifted out of the way to let yet another patient through on a gurney. She walked to the change rooms to get into her scrubs, ready to pitch in.

Rey did what she could for her patients. The symptoms were primarily a dry cough to begin with, progressing to aches and pains, sore throat, headache, loss of taste or smell then difficulty breathing, chest pain and loss of speech or movement. Once the disease had started to affect the breathing severely, patients had to be sedated and intubated. 

She pulled aside a droid and asked him to check on the status of the respirators, before going to her next patient. She’d never seen so many patients struggling to breath on the ward all at once and was concerned supplies would get low.

Rey caught a glimpse of the head of Respiratory Medicine, Doctor Bliss, in the hallway around 9am and chased her down. 

“Doctor Bliss? Doctor Bliss,” called Rey. “I’m sorry, but I’ve been here since the middle of the night, and things are just crazy around here. We can’t be expected to work like this! It’s chaos. Patients are going to die because the staff can’t keep up with their care needs!”

Doctor Bliss stopped and turned around. “What’s your name, intern?”

“Rey.”

“Oh, yes. Miss Rey. I’ve heard good things about you. Look, I understand you’re pretty green and stressed out right now, but trust me. I’m on my way to the board of directors to negotiate sharing space with levels ten through thirteen. We’ll have the droids working round the clock to set up the spaces to limit cross contamination between patients and we’ve got more staff being succonded from other departments to help us deal with the influx. It’ll just take some time to put into motion, that’s all. This outbreak caught us all unprepared.”

“So it is a contagion?”

“Yes. We’ve got the epidemiologists looking at statistics now, but this thing is spreading fast. Follow your infection control procedures. Change your PPE between every patient, you’ve got that? No exceptions. And wash your hands and sanitise.”

“Absolutely,” Rey nodded. “Always.”

Doctor Bliss turned to leave.

“Wait!”

“Time is lives, Rey,” Bliss huffed.

“Ask the directors for more respirators. Please. We’ve already got all of the ones from storage up on the floor. Patient health is declining at an unprecedented pace. I don’t know what this virus is, but it’s malicious.”

“I’ll get onto it. Thank you, Rey. Nice catch.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 10.30am an emergency meeting for all level nine staff was called. Crammed into the meeting room, shoulder to shoulder, Doctor Bliss laid down the situation.

“You’ll all be receiving your team assignments via comlink. You’ll be be split across the four floors. The hospital has cancelled all non-emergency treatments. This outbreak is the priority.”

“Doctor Bliss, why can’t we use the droids to treat the patients to limit risk to the healers?” one healer asked.

“Make best use of the droids as you usually would, but I’m afraid we need the healers to prioritise the care of the patients. We’ll need your expertise to determine who will be require which treatment, according to their symptoms. Droids simply don’t have the programming for such complex operations, not with a novel contagion.”

“Is it true there’s not enough respirators to go around?” called another healer.

“We’re working on a fix. There’s some being flown in from healing centers on nearby planets. It appears Coruscant is the epicentre of the outbreak, but our neighbours are helping out. Any more questions? Good. Before we go people, I just want to remind you that if you show symptoms, you’re immediately to go home. We don’t want people working sick. We’ve got enough staff for the time being. Don’t be a hero.”

Rey noticed her friend Jessel cough and rub her temple on the way out, but was across the room and stuck behind ten other people filing through the door. She jogged to catch her before she got too far. 

“Are you alright, Jess? You’re not looking too good,” Rey asked, observing Jessel’s ghostly pallor.

“I’m just tired. It’s been a long shift,” Jessel said, shiftily.

Rey eyed her suspiciously. “How’re your patients, Jess?”

“Mister Genrun isn’t going to make it,” Jessel said, her lip quivering.

“I’m sorry to hear that. He’s been with you two days now,” Rey calculated. “Do you think you may have been infected?”

Jessel whispered, “You can’t tell anyone, please. I can’t afford to take any time off right now.” 

“Jess! You’ve got to go home and isolate yourself!” Rey ordered. “You heard Bliss. Don’t be a hero. Go home and get some rest.”

“I told you, I can’t. I’ve got to work. I’m a single income household now. My children are depending on me. I don’t have a choice,” Jess said.

“Aren’t you scared? I’d be scared. This shit could kill you, Jess,” Rey worried.

“Terrified, but what can I do? I swore an oath to be a healer. It’s the risk we take when we sign up for the job, isn’t it?” Jessel said rhetorically.

“Alright then,” Rey decided. “I’m going to help you out, but you absolutely cannot tell anyone I did this for you, okay? People might not understand. Don’t freak out.” 

Rey placed her hand on Jessel’s forehead, and let the force flow through her. She felt the flow through her body, connecting her to Jess, imparting her healing. 

“How did you do that?” Jessel asked. “What even was that?”

“I have force powers,” Rey admitted sheepishly. “I think I just cured you, right?”

“Yeah, and not just of the cough. Darling, you just fixed the slipped disc in my back that’s been troubling me for ten years and the arthritis in my knees.”

Rey grinned. “Glad I could help.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rey was back at the hospital again the following day, having finished a sixteen hour shift, sleeping for eight hours, as mandated by the laws for fair work practices, and heading straight back with the full intention of helping her patients to the best of her abilities again. She was, however, cornered by Jessel in the change room before she could get into her scrubs. 

“It didn’t take, Rey. I feel it coming on again. Can you help me out again?” Jessel pleaded.

“What? But I cured you,” Rey exclaimed.

“I don’t think so.” Jessel lamented and shook her head. “I think I’m still infected. I felt better for a while but the symptoms have returned.”

Rey’s eyebrows knitted. “Then you’ve got to go home, Jess. You could spread the virus among the other staff.”

“It’s too late. It’s already spread. Bliss wants to see you. She knows everything. About how I was sick yesterday, about how you healed me,” Jessel confessed.

“Jess, I told you not to tell! Why would you tell her?” Rey complained.

“I’m sorry. It’s just...when it was clear other staff members were getting sick, I felt guilty. I needed to assuage my guilt, so I told Bliss I was the transmission vector. She asked why I wasn’t sick and I had to tell her about you. I’m really really sorry, Rey. I didn’t mean to dump you in it. Can you just...please...heal me again before you go?” Jessel begged.

“Fine, yeah. Okay. I forgive you. Come here.” Rey performed her healing magic begrudgingly. “I’m not happy about this, Jess. I know we’re good mates, but you’re putting me at risk of infection too.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I love you,” Jessel said. 

“Yeah. I know. You too,” Rey grumbled.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rey reported to Doctor Bliss’s office apprehensively.

“Come on in, Rey. Don’t be timid. You’re not in trouble.”

Rey sat down and twiddled her thumbs, her eyes roving around Doctor Bliss’s office. It was neat and stylish. An abstract artwork hung on the wall, and large potted plants framed either side of the window. Bliss herself was dressed in a crisp outfit, her hair and makeup flawless. Bliss had class. Rey admired her.

“I need your help to solve a problem, Miss Rey,” Doctor Bliss started. “I’m afraid I underestimated this virus and it’s virulence. I had believed infection control procedures between staff and patients would have been effective enough to control the spread, but somehow we had an infected person in the staff room, and as it’s evidently an airborne virus, it’s now infected many staff members and is threatening to compromise our ability to tackle the outbreak.”

“Oh,” Rey said.

“Jessel Dess has informed me that you may be able to help me keep my workforce working,” Dr Bliss stated.

“Oh. She wasn’t supposed to confide that to anyone. I’m...not really sure of what I’m doing,” Rey confessed, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

“But you healed her, you kept her on her feet and she in turn helped others. That’s all I’m asking for, Rey. Treat the staff with your ability. Keep us going, until we are out the other side of this. I can’t afford to lose half my staff to sick leave all at once,” Doctor Bliss pleaded.

Rey sighed. “It’s not a permanent fix. Jessel’s symptoms returned overnight. I’d have to treat every person, every day.”

“I’d be willing to compensate you handsomely for it, Rey. Your full status as a healer would be granted immediately, with no need to complete your internship, and you’d be placed on the highest pay rate for a healer immediately and indefinitely,” Doctor Bliss said.

Rey was taken aback. Bliss was making this a business transaction. Mystical force power in exchange for money. It made her feel dirty.

“That’s not why I became a healer. I don’t do it for the money,” Rey frowned.

“Then what can I offer you, Rey? I need you. I’m willing to give anything within my power.” Bliss wrung her hands anxiously. She had an air of desperation about her.

Rey resigned herself to her fate. How could she refuse? “Just give me what I need to do my job. I’ll do what I can.”

“Absolutely,” Doctor Bliss agreed. “I understand about you not doing it for the money, Rey, but I’m putting it in your contract anyway. Don’t undervalue yourself, ever.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rey acceded.

Doctor Bliss had Rey set up in an office with the title “Infection Control Healer” on the door. Staff members trickled in throughout the day and Rey would use the force to heal their symptoms and send them back to work.

At the end of her first day, she was feeling pretty whoosy and nauseous. She packed up her folder of paperwork, with the names of the staff she had healed and those yet to report in, submitted it to Doctor Bliss before grabbing her satchel and heading to her speeder. 

When she came to the elevator, she pressed the button and then held herself up with an outstretched arm, blinking to clear the haze over her eyes.

She staggered across the footbridge to the car park where her speeder awaited, walked past half a dozen cruisers, resting her hand on their bonnets to prevent herself from falling, before swaying, her eyes rolling back as she fell into a dead faint.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rey woke, bleary eyed and aching all over. “Ugh,” she grunted. Her hand hurt. She looked down to see a cannula inserted in her right hand and followed it up to a bag of saline on the stand beside her hospital bed.

She closed her eyes again, the pain in her head making her lids heavy and her senses dull.

“Did you learn your lesson?” a deep voice rumbled from across the room.

Rey’s tried to sit up to see, but could only manage to half open one eye. It was Ben. 

Black overtook her mind as she drifted back into unconciousness.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Awake once more, once more aware that she wasn’t alone, Rey mustered her strength. “Get out.”

Ben snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Rey couldn’t fight. The fatigue was in her every cell.

“What did you do to me?” she accused.

“Oh, I didn’t do this, sweetheart. You did it all on your own. I just didn’t stop you.” Ben stood and hovered over her, examining her. She didn’t like the way he looked at her, his eyes roving. “You look like shit.”

“Fuck you.”

Ben leaned in threateningly close. “I offered you my help once. I offered to teach you. You let yourself be used by someone who couldn’t possibly comprehend the consequences of what they asked of you, and look at where you are now. Helpless as a porg.”

“Stay away from me,” Rey warned.

“Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you. In fact, I’m your knight in shining armour. I brought you into the hospital so they could fix how they fucked you up,” Ben replied, turning nonchalantly.

“Why would you do that?” Rey asked.

“Well, maybe I felt a little guilty for letting you go too far. I was here visiting my mother. I could feel you slipping. I should have stopped you a little sooner. I was pissed though and maybe wanted to punish you for rejecting me. You were wrong to not take me up on my offer, and so damn cocky, so I let you heal others as much as you wanted. After all, you told me you knew what you were capable of. I figured you’d have to learn from your own mistakes. After you collapsed in the car park, I fetched you.”

“You shouldn’t have been here. There’s an outbreak. No visitors,” Rey said.

Ben laughed. “Rules don’t apply to me, sweetheart.”

“Stop that. I’m not your sweetheart,” Rey said, baring her teeth.

“Still got a little fight in you, I see. Good. I like that in a woman,” Ben said, oilily

“Gross,” Rey muttered.

“Your boss is a piece of work,” Ben observed. “Using you like that.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rey returned. “I volunteered.”

“What the fuck for?”

“Because there’s a goddamn outbreak, weren’t you listening? There’s a virus, it’s going to kill a potentially limitless number of people if we can’t help them, and we need our people to keep working,” Rey defended.

“So you sacrificed yourself for the greater good, huh. What a fucking hero. What a martyr.” Ben looked her up and down. “What a fucking tragic waste.”

“Would you please, just leave me alone? I don’t want you here. The healers should have never allowed you in here.”

“Yeah,” Ben smirked. “They tried to stop me.” He chuckled, amused by himself. “It’s not too hard to get around when you know how to use the force to convince people. You’d know that if you let me teach you.”

“Please, Ben. Go.”

Ben shook his head. “Nope.”

“What do you want from me?” Rey said, exasperated.

“You know what I want.”

“Don’t you dare kiss me again,” Rey growled.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, sweetheart. Not until you ask me.”

“That’s never going to happen,” Rey snorted.

“Less likely things have happened,” Ben returned. “You’ll find I can be quite persuasive. We’re going to spend this time to get to know each other a little better, okay? You never know. You might grow to like me.”

“I don’t like you right now,” Rey replied, frostily.

“You don’t even know me,” Ben replied. “Isn’t that what you said to me?”

Rey chewed her tongue sullenly, looking away.

“So...lets get started.”


	4. Taking it Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey is forced to rest due to illness. Ben takes the opportunity to develop a relationship with her.

“I’m sorry, Ben, but you really need to quit your job,” Rey asserted. “I’m totally with your mum on that one.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a week of convalescence for Rey. Ben had visited her every day. 

At first it had been unwelcome, Rey sitting in seething silence at the unwanted intrusion, but Ben was patient. He just talked to her, not seeming to care if she talked back. He talked like he hadn’t had a friend in years, confiding all sorts of things about what he’d been like as a child. Really personal stuff. He didn’t need to do that. It softened Rey a little towards him.

Rey learned about his family. She’d never had much family to call her own. Her parents had abandoned her on Jakku at a young age. She had waited for them for the longest time, but as she neared adulthood it seemed pointless to hold out hope any longer. She’d learned to fend for herself, by then, and though she always felt that pang of loneliness, incompleteness, she’d had to move on with her life. She’d found a higher calling in healing. A purpose.

Ben’s family were something else. When he told her his full name, she was shocked. How had she never put two and two together? Of course his family had been people of importance. No one who was force sensitive came out of nowhere, but his family had been the stuff of legend. Rey understood where Ben’s arrogance came from, and forgave him for it. He’d never known what it was to be humbled by upbringing or circumstance. His mother was a princess and a general, his father a war hero, though Rey was more impressed by his status as a smuggler.

It gave Rey a squirming feeling in her stomach that Ben would even consider her worthy of notice. Still she worried if he had ulterior motives. Perhaps he only wanted her because of her force sensitivity. Still, when he was around, there was something undeniable about his raw magnetism. Maybe she wanted him for his force sensitivity too. She didn’t really know how these things worked. She just knew she’d never felt an attraction like this before. Her head told her Ben was someone to be wary of, but her cells hummed in his presence, clouding her judgement. 

Over the days, Ben had brought her little treats. They weren’t extravagant. At first it was just a cup of quality coffee.

“You said you didn’t have the time or money,” he shrugged. “Now you’ve got time and this is on me.”

Rey accepted the drink. It was sweet of Ben, but uncharacteristically sappy. He’d remembered their first date. Ben’s eyes twinkled as she took the cup, their fingers brushing as the cup exchanged hands. A dimple came out of hiding as he smiled. He was kind of beautiful when he wasn’t being insufferably overbearing, Rey thought.

The next day, he’d brought her a game of Dejarik to play to alleviate the boredom of convalescence. He explained that his dad’s friend Chewbacca had played it with him as a kid.

“He liked playing with me, because he’d always win. I was only a youngling of course,” Ben explained. “He’d never win a battle against me now, of course.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Rey teased. “Blame it on your youth.”

Ben explained how he’d been sent, as a youngling to his Uncle Luke to train in the ways of the Jedi. He told her how he’d come to see the fallibility in seeing the force as two opposing sides of the same coin, and of his falling out with his family over it.

“Then why did you give me so much shit about not knowing if I was using the light side of the force or the dark to heal people? You had me thinking all sorts of madness, you asshole!” Rey chastised.

“Because most people only know of the force in terms of the Jedi and the Sith, the light and the dark. I was trying to warn you in terms you could relate to and understand. You needed to know the severity of your actions. I guess you’re just the type who has to learn the hard way,” Ben said.

Rey softened. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you told me a little more about it.”

Pleased, Ben shuffled closer and proceeded with a long-winded explanation that held Rey captivated for the rest of the afternoon. “When I regain my strength, you can show me how,” she allowed. Ben beamed, triumphantly.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben had been Rey’s only visitor, except for the healers. Jessel hadn’t even been allowed to visit because of the risk of spreading the virus, but they had communicated via comlink. 

“It’s bonkers down here, Rey,” Jessel confided. “We really miss you.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” Rey admitted. “It’s pretty boring sitting up here in the penthouse.”

“I’m sorry we made you sick. It’s all my fault. I should never have told Bliss about you. Glad she ponied up and gave you the best private room we have, but what am I supposed to do to make it up to you? How am I supposed to make it up to everyone I transmitted the virus to. I don’t think I can ever forgive myself,” Jessel wept.

“No. Don’t do that to yourself. None of us were to know. It’s going to be okay though. I’ve met someone who can teach me how to use my power so I don’t get sick from it again. I’ll know my limits better from now on,” Rey said.

“What? How? We’re in lockdown. You’re bedridden!” Jessel marvelled. “Is it a guy?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s complicated. But it’s good...I think. He’s kind of a conflicted guy. Complicated, like I said. I’m still figuring him out,” Rey said.

“Well, I hope he’s treating you okay,” Jessel said.

“I honestly can’t complain,” Rey said. She pondered. “Huh.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Well...no...maybe something,” Rey said.

“What!? Tell me!” Jess demanded.

“I’m actually looking forward to seeing him today,” Rey confessed, surprising herself.

“Ooh...must be nice. All I’ve got to look forward to today are aching feet and psychological fatigue. This outbreak is a fucking nightmare. Speaking of which, I’ve got to get back to my patients. I don’t think I can stand to lose anymore. Love you, babe.”

“You too, Jess.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben came in a little later that day. He threw a bouquet of flowers down on the table so roughly the petals burst from them falling to the floor. “Sorry,” Ben said, observing the destructive cascade. “I’ve just been dealing with my boss.” Ben was restless, agitated, angry.

“It’s okay. Saves me the trouble of finding a vase,” Rey joked, trying to diffuse the tension. “Thank you for the thought. What’s wrong?”

“It’s okay. I’ve got it under control.” Ben paced, his jaw clenching. “I had to tell him about you and me, but it’ll be alright.”

“Why would your boss want to know about me?” Rey puzzled. “What business is it of his? Surely our talking is private between you and me?”

Ben refused to answer.

“Ben? Why does your boss want to know about me?” Rey persevered. 

“I haven’t told you who I work for yet, have I?” Ben replied. “I work for Snoke. I work for the First Order.”

“So?”

Ben looked at Rey incredulously. “You don’t know who he is? Surely not. For an intelligent woman, you really don’t know much, do you?”

Rey angered. “Hey, I grew up alone in the middle of buttfuck nowhere! I’ve only been on Coruscant for three years and for most of that time I’ve had my head in medical textbooks, so forgive me for not following every aspect of life in the god damn galaxy! I’ve been busy!”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I squared things with Snoke anyway. You’re not in any danger as long as you stick with me,” Ben asserted.

“Are you threatening me?” Rey flashed. “You’re saying I’m in danger if I don’t stick with you?”

“Potentially, yes. Snoke doesn’t want an uncontrolled force sensitive around,” Ben admitted, pacing angrily.

“What the fuck? Who is this guy and what do you mean “uncontrolled?” You tell me everything, Ben. You tell me everything, right now!” Rey demanded.

Ben sat, his hand flying to Rey’s. She pulled it away angrily. Ben’s face fell, but he didn’t press the issue. He proceeded to tell her how he’d come to work for Snoke. How at first it had seemed like a good idea, that he’d had more freedoms than when he’d trained with his Uncle, that he’d been given more responsibilities, more trust. He told her how he’d initially become Snoke’s protector, then his apprentice, the two who could harness the power of the force. He’d pledged his allegiance and turned his back on his family. 

“You pledged your allegiance? What about your freedom, Ben? How could you swear fealty to someone unless they were some kind of king or dictator or...”

“Supreme Leader,” Ben frowned.

“Holy shit! This guy sounds scary. Be honest. How much danger am I in? I can tell when you lie,” Rey said, grimly.

“Can you?” Ben asked. “I’ve never lied to you.”

Rey smiled. “No, you haven’t, and that’s how I can tell. But there’s a lot you haven’t said and that’s what worries me.”

“I’ll tell you, just, when I’m ready. Just know that for now, as long as you’re with me, you’re safe. You’re under my care and protection,” Ben said.

“Honestly?”

“Yeah. He’s got bigger things on his mind than you for the moment. He was more interested in other things happening around here actually. He insisted I hang around to keep an eye on things for him. I’ll be on Coruscant for a while longer. You’re stuck with me.” Ben tried again to take Rey’s hand. She allowed his fingers to brush hers, before withdrawing it slowly.

“Yeah, but you’re like my own personal security guard now, right?” Rey joked. “I’m under your care and protection?”

“Right,” Ben agreed. “I’ll keep you safe, Rey.”

“Do you pledge it?” Rey teased. Joking always made Rey feel better when situations were dire. In truth, she was very frightened. If this Snoke didn’t want her around, there was very little she could do about it.

“Are you mocking me?” Ben growled.

“Just a little bit,” Rey smirked.

“You’ll pay mocking me one day, woman,” Ben teased. “But not today. You still look pathetically weak and I’m too big of a man for it. What the hell good are they in this hospital? Surely you should be feeling better by now?”

“I am feeling better,” Rey insisted. “Better every day, and better for seeing you.”

“You lie,” Ben retorted. He paused. Rey felt a strange feeling in her mind. An intrusion. “Wait. No, you don’t. You’re actually happy to see me aren’t you?”

“Well, I was,” Rey thundered. “Get the fuck out of my head! That’s such a violation, Ben.”

Ben blinked. “Sorry...sorry. I didn’t think. I just wanted to see…”

“Do you do that to everyone?” Rey asked.

“Well, yeah. It’s part of my job. I have to see any potential threats. I guess it’s become second nature. I didn’t even think. Sorry,” Ben said.

Rey concentrated, hard, focusing her energy. Two could play at that game, she thought. She pushed her consciousness towards Ben’s mind, using the force to seek out a thought, a feeling, a memory. She came across a single vivid nightmare. A giant being in a throne, sitting stock still, electricity emanating from his hands, while Ben writhed in agony at his feet.

She fell back, exhausted once more.

“We’re even now, Rey. I won’t steal your secrets if you don’t steal mine,” Ben said.

Rey nodded, disturbed by what she’d seen. She didn’t want to see more.

“Was that Snoke? Are you going to tell me about it?” she asked kindly.

“Maybe another time,” Ben deflected. “Why don’t you tell me what’s been happening around here?”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day was Saturday, so Rey had a long talk via hologram with Poe and Rose, like they were sharing breakfast at home as per usual, and the world wasn’t crumbling down around them.

“This virus is crazy,” Poe said. “The Resistance is putting out orders for everyone to shelter in place, but half the people aren’t listening. They’re fleeing the planet if they can. There’s panic everywhere. People are having brawls in the streets for supplies. You’re better off where you are, Rey.”

“I’m not so sure about that. If it spreads throughout the hospital, I could be in real danger. My friend Jess said that the bodies are piling up now. The morgue is operating day and night. They’re starting to build makeshift field hospitals. The hospital can’t cope,” Rey lamented. 

“Yeah, I know. The Resistance have been put in charge of the construction. The First Order have done fuck all to help. They say they’re working on developing a test as their contribution but they won’t send the storm troopers to keep the peace. I’ve been reassigned from fighter pilot to engineer helping with the fit-out of the field hospital.”

“That’s an odd choice,” Rey mused.

“Hey, just give me the specs and I can build it. It’s no different to repairing a jet,” Poe claimed. “Don’t doubt my skills!” 

“Well, I’m glad the Resistance is seeing how multi-talented you are,” Rey smiled. “What about you, Rose? What have they got you doing?”

“Nothing, right now. My skills aren’t considered as an “essential service.” They just want us to stay home to limit the spread of the virus. I haven’t seen anyone other than Poe in days. When are you coming home, Rey? I can’t stand to be cooped up alone with him all the time! I need girl time!” she joked.

“I miss you too, Rose. I don’t know. Taking it one day at a time,” Rey said.

Suddenly Ben appeared at her door, looking worse for wear.

“I’d better go, guys. I’ve got a visitor. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Love you, bye!” She shut off the hologram. She switched her focus to the figure in the doorway. “You look like you haven’t slept all night,” Rey observed.

“That’s because I haven’t,” Ben replied. “I’m ready to talk to you about what you saw in my head. I don’t know what you’ll think of me once I tell you. I couldn’t sleep because of it. I don’t want to risk losing you, Rey...”

“You can trust me, Ben. I’m not going anywhere. I like you,” Rey confessed, blushing.

“Umm, that’s good, thanks. I like you too, but that’s not really what I meant. I don’t want to risk losing you to Snoke.”

“What?” said Rey, incredulously.

“You’re a good person, Rey, but I know what Snoke is like. He’ll twist you if he gets his hands on you. I don’t want to let that happen but I can’t think how I can stop it now he knows of your existence. I don’t know if I have the strength.”

“So you can’t protect me? But you said you could,” Rey said, shivering with fear.

“I wanted to mean it when I said I’d keep you safe, but I thought all night, I thought about that image you pulled from my mind and why Snoke did that to me. I couldn’t protect myself or the people I love, not even my own father. The truth is I’m not a free man. Snoke made me his servant and stripped me of my name, giving me a new one...Kylo Ren. I’m essentially a slave. I never accepted that as the truth of the matter until last night.”

“I’ve heard of Kylo Ren,” Rey darkened. “When Poe would tell me about his missions with the Resistance. He was a spectre, a vanguard of destruction. That was you? That was the First Order?”

“I’m so sorry. I’ve put a target on your back even telling you. Perhaps one on my own as well if he ever searches my mind and sees what I’ve told you,” Ben said.

“Surely you’re not going back to work for that man?” Rey gawped. “Are you insane?”

“No. Not insane, just broken, chained. I have no other choice,” Ben brooded.

“The Resistance could protect you if you defected,” Rey suggested.

“The Resistance are pathetic. Without my mother to lead them, they’re just a pack of mongrel fighters trying to be politicians and peacekeepers,” Ben said.

“Well that’s a flattering description of my friends, thank you,” Rey glowered.

“You have no idea what the First Order has become, Rey. They’ve become increasingly powerful. My mother knows it, and she begged me to leave, and I still couldn’t. She doesn’t know the hold Snoke has over me. I could never tell her what he did to me, but you know. You saw. I let you see, because I wanted you to know me, all of me, and be by my side.”

“Oh, Ben,” Rey whispered sadly, and reached out and took his hand in sympathy. “I appreciate that you trusted me with that, but I don’t know. After everything you’ve just told me...about the man you’ve become...the things you’ve done for Snoke.”

“Just say you’ll join me. You’ll be safe if you join me,” Ben said.

“And be a slave for Snoke as well? Have him use my force power to destroy, like Kylo Ren? I can’t do that, Ben. I never could.” Rey dropped Ben’s hand. 

Ben clenched his fists, his face falling with disappointment.

“I’m sorry, Ben, but you really need to quit your job,” Rey asserted. “I’m totally with your mum on that one. But I think I may have just thought of something I could do to help you. I just need one more day to gather my strength. We can get you more protection. Then we might possibly have a chance.”

“You’ll be with me if I defect?” Ben implored. “Even after all I’ve done?”

“Yes,” Rey ventured, timidly. If Snoke was going to come for her anyway, she had nothing to lose by trying to save a tortured man, one who she’d grown to like. She found it difficult to marry the impression of the man in front of her with the description Poe had given her of Kylo Ren. Ben, to her, wasn’t a bad man. Just a conflicted one. “If what you’re saying is true, that it wasn’t of your own volition, and you really are repentant.”

“We’ll probably both be killed if I leave. Snoke will come for me first, then you,” Ben warned.

“Maybe,” Rey shrugged. “From what you say I’m a target simply for being force sensitive. He can’t kill me twice for taking his favourite toy away. You have to defect, Ben. You know it’s the right thing to do.”

“I’ll try my best,” Ben promised. 

“I won’t leave you alone, Ben,” Rey assured him, and to prove her point, she pulled him to her and kissed him gently. “We’ll stand against Snoke together.”

Ben marvelled at her for a moment, before leaning back over Rey, taking her face between his hands and kissing her gratefully, softly on the lips. He pressed on, the warmth of his breath invading her mouth and taking her breath away all at once.

“Oh, Rey,” Ben breathed. “Thank you for making this so easy for me.”


	5. Darkness Falls and the Light Rises to Meet It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ulterior Motives are Revealed

Ben landed his command shuttle aboard Snoke’s capital ship and made his way to the throne room, dressed in his full Knights of Ren garb, all black, with cloak and cape, helmet obscuring his face from sight.

“Welcome back, Kylo Ren,” Snoke said. The Supreme Leader of the First Order towered above Ben, his twisted face looming menacingly above him. “What have you to report?”

Ben observed the Elite Praetorian Guards, in their long red robes and helmets, wielding their weapons, who were lining the throne room. He was entirely surrounded. 

Ben kneeled before Snoke, his head bowed. “The viral outbreak has created widespread fear throughout Coruscant, Supreme Leader. The death rate is climbing. The Resistance are preoccupied with managing the crisis. They are failing to control the chaos and the citizens are becoming disillusioned with the Resistance’s effectiveness to ensure their safety,” Ben reported, dutifully.

“And your mother?”

“Leia Organa is intolerably stubborn. She continues to try to influence me to relinquish the dark side. She does not truly believe Ben Solo has returned to her, though she desires it desperately. Her health is fragile. She will not survive much longer, according to the healers. We need do nothing but wait.” 

“Good. Good,” drawled Snoke. “And of the girl?”

“She was easily manipulated, Supreme Leader. Her empathy is her weakness. I simply used it to gain her trust. She will join me,” Ben proclaimed triumphantly. “She will fall to the dark side at your command.”

Snoke probed Ben’s mind and saw the recent events with Rey at the hospital unfold. “Yes. She is foolish, isn’t she? She falls for a sob story and a pretty face. You have done well to seduce her, yet she resists Kylo Ren, she resists the First Order.”

“It is part the plan, Supreme Leader, to have her believe that Ben Solo is the man she sees when she looks at me. She will believe I have defected to the Resistance out of love for her.” Ben’s mouth twitches with a wry smile. “It will place me in a unique position within their ranks, master. A position you can exploit.”

“Excellent. You have exceeded my expectations, Ren. When I found you, I saw your raw, untamed power. You have learned nuance. You have learned subterfuge. You are a fine instrument, more than the blunt tool you once were. You served me well as my assassin. You shall serve me well as we move onto the next phase,” Snoke says.

“What is the progress on the election?” Ben asks.

“The election is forfeit. It is insignificant, a foil,” Snoke dismissed, with a wave of his hand. “We are moving onto the next phase ahead of schedule. Soon, I shall announce that it was I who released the virus upon Coruscant, and that it shall be released upon every inhabited planet in the galaxy unless all concede to my rule. Entire systems will fall in fear. I shall become Supreme Leader of all, and you, Kylo Ren, shall rule at my side as my apprentice.”

“I am your servant, Supreme Leader,” Ben submits.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Thank goodness, you’re finally here,” Rey beamed at Ben. “Check it out...no more hospital gown!” Rey did a twirl in her street clothes. “I’m being discharged. Fully recovered. I’m just waiting for the all clear.”

Ben smiled. “That’s great, sweetheart! Why did you have me come all the way down here though if you’re being let out?”

“Because I figured out what we need to do. You said yesterday that the Resistance is no good without your mother, right? So we need to get your mother back to the Resistance. You’re taking me to meet her, right now. I’m going to heal her cancer.” Rey beamed.

Ben bit his lip, attempting to hold back a tirade that would not be suppressed. “For fuck’s sake, Rey. You’ve only just recovered. You have to try to save everyone, don’t you? What is it with you, some kind of messiah complex? It’s my mother’s time. She knows it and I know it. I haven’t come down here to see her suffer day in, day out and to make peace with the fact she’s dying because I enjoy torturing myself and watching her in misery. I have to let her go. If the resistance can’t protect me, that’s a risk I’m willing to take, but let my mother rest. She’s earned it.” Ben huffed, face red, nostrils flaring, muscles twitching.

Rey stepped back, recoiling as if Ben had slapped her face. “You would have me do nothing?”

“Yes. I would save your health and let my mother pass with dignity, every time,” Ben asserted, his dark eyes steeled with determination.

“You really haven’t reconciled with her at all, have you?” Rey accused. “Such detached coldness from you. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t just seen it in your eyes.”

“My relationship with my mother is complicated, Rey, and is something you would know very little about. Don’t ever accuse me of being cold towards her though. If you could see the way she’s suffering, feel it through the force, the way I do, you would wish her the peace of passing from the physical realm to the spiritual.”

“Then take me to her,” Rey suggested. “Help me understand. I will talk to her, and I’ll follow her wishes, but I want to hear them from her lips, not yours. It should be her choice, her right.”

“It’s a little early in the relationship for you to be meeting my mother, don’t you think, Rey?” Ben pointed out.

“Come on,” Rey smiled, shouldering her satchel and putting her hand on Ben’s bicep. “She’s going to love me. Everybody does.”

Ben leaned forward and captured Rey’s lips with his own. “I can’t argue with that.”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So that’s my thinking,” Rey summarised, sitting at the foot of Leia Organa’s sick bed. “Ben leaves the First Order and stays here with us. The Resistance offers him protection from Snoke and I help you return to the Resistance so that they can better ensure all of our safety. Ben tells me you’re the best strategist they’ve ever had and that they’re rubbish without you. What do you say?” Rey asks hopefully.

Leia pondered in silence for some time, before asking Ben what his opinion was.

Ben took her hand, and said earnestly, “I think you’ve fought enough battles, mother. I know you’re tired. I want to give you my permission to say no, that you don’t want to be healed. You have my blessing to rest. I can take care of myself.”

Rey turned on him. “That’s not what you told me yesterday, Ben.”

Ben flashed an angry look at Rey. “That was between the two of us, not between you, me and my mother. You’re the one who brought her into this. Look at her, Rey. Feel her with the force. Hasn’t she suffered enough?”

Rey closed her eyes. Yes, she could feel it. “But I can ease it,” she protested.

“For her to be tossed back into the fray. It’s not just her health you’re asking for. You’re asking for her to be a warrior again,” Ben pointed out.

“Which I would gladly do if it meant my son was fighting by my side,” Leia offered. “For you to return to the light, Ben, it’s all I’ve been hoping for since you left.” Turning to Rey, Leia extended her hand. “Go ahead, sweet child. I’m ready to get out of this hell hole. If I never see another hospital bed, it’ll be too soon.”

“Wait!” cried Ben. “Rey hasn’t told you the whole story about her healing abilities. It takes her life force, mother. Are you willing to risk trading her life for your own?”

Rey turned to Ben and gave him a withering look. “She’s not near death right now, Ben. I only need to heal the abnormal cell growth that’s causing the tumours, and the chemotherapy has done most of the work for me. It’ll be nothing,” said Rey, turning to Leia, “It’ll be nothing. I’m perfectly safe.”

Leia nodded and squeezed her hand. Rey took a deep breath, closed her eyes and focused, letting the force flow through her, feeling it flow through Leia, and mingling in the inbetween spaces. She allowed the sensation of the healing process to withdraw the energy from her body and pass it on, with no more than a tingle at her fingertips to indicate anything had occurred at all.

A look of serenity passed over Leia’s previously pained visage. “You, my dear girl, are extraordinary. Thank you.”

“You’re more than welcome, Princess Leia.”

Leia smiled kindly. “I don’t go by Princess anymore, sweet girl. It’s General Organa.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben had left Rey and his mother to gather Leia’s personal effects from the hospital, to find a private room where he reported to Snoke via hologram about his mother’s recovery. 

“I did not forsee this complication, Supreme Leader. The girl has more cunning than I gave her credit for,” Ben admitted. “I will not underestimate her again.”

“It is of little consequence,” Snoke dismissed. “We have an unstoppable strategy. A bioweapon that can be smuggled onto worlds undetected with the potential to cause cataclysmic destruction. We have the means, we have the might. Leia Organa will be taken care of in due course.”

“I will have difficulty leaving Coruscant, Supreme Leader, in this current climate. The Resistance plan on imposing a planet-wide quarantine as of this evening. No ships will be allowed in or out,” Ben said.

“I will ensure your safe passage, when the time comes that I need you, Kylo Ren. For now, stay exactly where you are, and continue to play your part. I want the Resistance to learn how futile the struggle is against my bioweapon is before I announce my plan for supremacy. You will inform me when they are at their most desperate,” Snoke commanded.

“As you wish, Supreme Leader.”


	6. Despondency and Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The viral outbreak begins to take it's toll.

Rey had returned home from her hospital stay to the house she shared with Rose and Poe to rest for the night with the intention of returning to work the following morning.

Ben and Leia were talking in Leia’s apartment on Coruscant at dusk. 

“I’m worried for you, Ben. I would rather we hide you somewhere safe. We could smuggle you to the outer reaches. There’s still risk, but it has been tried and tested and succeeded in the past. This, what you’re proposing, is far more dangerous.”

“I can do this,” Ben insisted. “As long as I keep giving Snoke reports he won’t know I’ve defected. Don’t worry. I choose what I reveal with the utmost of care.”

“It’s still a risky plan son. What if Snoke senses deception?” Leia worries.

“He won’t. Don’t underestimate my power, mother. As far as things go, Snoke thinks I’m following his orders to be stationed here on Coruscant. He wants me to keep an eye on you and Rey. So far, everything I’ve informed Snoke of has been entirely true. There’s been no need for deception. I’ve just been fortunate that it also fits into his plans for me.”

“It’s a lucky coincidence. The time will come when we have to make a stand. That’s when we’ll all be in real danger.”

“If a stand must be taken, at least we’ll be together, won’t we?” Ben asserted.

Leia beamed and took her sons hands in her own. “Your father would have been so happy to hear you say that, Ben. He loved you so much.”

“I know.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rey rode her speeder to the hospital at top speed, the engine whining from the unusual strain of having the throttle full open. The lane-ways were all but empty, the entire city in lockdown, except for those services the Resistance has deemed essential. Businesses had been shut up. Jobs have been lost. What began as a health disaster had now become an economic disaster, a political talking point and all the fingers for who to blame are pointing outward. There is a sense of impending doom hanging thick in the air, which was ironic, because without all the traffic pollution, Rey could actually breathe easier on her ride to work.

The Resistance epidemiologists discovered that the virus was presenting in clusters of people who had been in close contact. It had a single origin point on Coruscant and then it spread and it spread fast, which meant it was likely to be an airborne vector as well as one that could be transmitted via direct contact and on surfaces. 

The scientists claimed they they could slow the spread if everyone sheltered in place. That meant that travel to and from Coruscant was banned. It meant that travel between regions of the planet were banned. It meant that leaving your house for any reason other than to feed yourself was banned. Coruscant was under strict quarantine.

Additional measures had been put in place by the Resistance. Campaigns were launched to have every individual do their part by maintaining at least six feet away from others at all times, to wash hands and use hand sanitiser, to wear face masks to reduce airborne transmission and to disinfect all surfaces regularly.

The measures had not been adopted universally. Many protested about having their civil liberties violated. People rioted claiming their livelihoods were at stake. Those adopting the safety measures raged at those who refused, claiming they were putting them in danger. Friends and neighbours had become suspicious of each other, never knowing who could be infected until it’s too late.

Rey reeled at how fast everything had unraveled around her, while she had spent most of her time recuperating. When Rose had filled her in all all the new rules, she had been taken aback, but she understood that it was for the best.

Rey made it up to level nine in the hospital and was immediately paged by Doctor Bliss on her comlink to come to her office.

“We’re very glad to have you back, Rey,” Doctor Bliss said. “I’m glad to see you’re looking well.”

Rey nodded. “Thank you.”

Bliss continued without hesitation, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to terminate your contract as our Infection Control Healer, Rey. I’m sure you understand.”

“What?” Rey squealed. “You can’t terminate me. I did what you asked. I…”

“Let me finish,” Doctor Bliss said calmly, “And reinstate your former position. I want you to be a regular healer again. Use your knowledge and skills, not your force power. I can’t have you going through a bout of illness like that again. It doesn’t sit right with my conscience to have inadvertently caused a good person harm and is against my oath as a healer,” she said seriously. “Also, the hospital would be liable and it would get my ass fired,” she added, matter-of-factly.

“Oh...good. That’s actually what I was going to ask for,” Rey said, relieved to not have to have an argument. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

“We’ve got a lot of good staff who are now patients. They’ve not been nearly as lucky as you. It’s a miracle you didn’t succumb to the virus in your weakened state. You must have been one of the lucky ones that avoided infection, by some miracle,” Bliss commented.

“It’s a puzzle,” Rey admitted. “I was in touch with nearly all those staff members last week before I was hospitalised. Maybe I’m immune.”

“Then you’re a rarity,” Bliss mused. “This virus is lethal, but not in all cases. If we’re able to keep people holding on until their immune systems can fight it off, if they can build their own immunity, we might just be able to see our way out of this thing, but at the moment we’re taking it patient by patient and day by day. So, are you ready to get out there and give these people your best care?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rey confirmed.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day after day, Rey was finding that working on the ward was draining her of hope. Her face had welts from the mask she wore all day to filter the air so that the virus couldn’t enter her body through her airways. Her ears were welted and tearing from the pull of the mask’s straps. The skin of her hands was dry and cracked from changing her gloves and washing her hands so frequently. Her body ached from the long relentless work. The worst of it, however, was seeing the seasoned professionals, the really tough healers who had been through wars, breaking down on the floor right where they had been standing moments before, sobbing, collapsing with grief and futility after having lost yet another patient. If they couldn’t tolerate these conditions, how was Rey supposed to?

Supplies for protective equipment were running low. They were already taking shortcuts, using the masks repeatedly. Soon they would run out and the staff themselves would be risking their own lives even more.

The beds in the hospital were always at capacity. The field hospital took the overflow, but every time a bed was emptied by a death, it was filled with another body almost immediately. The unceasing influx of disease and death became inevitable and despair had set in. 

The disposal of the bodies had been taken over by the Resistance as a military operation. The hospital could no longer cope. Rose had been recruited to the task, and her stories had given Rey nightmares.

Patients died alone. Families were not allowed to accompany them because of the quarantine restrictions and no visitation policy. The healers did what they could to ensure their passing was peaceful, but there was no substitute for being with a loved one. 

There was so much pain and suffering, and Rey could feel it all around her. It permeated her. She tried to shut it out, but she couldn’t. She was one with the force and she could feel the lives being snuffed out, one by one.

Rey couldn’t stand it. She had to do something more. She had to. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rey had finished her final shift for the week. She was looking forward to a good long rest to recharge after what had been the most nightmarish day of her life. She called Ben via hologram and tried to talk to him, but all he said was that he was coming over before abruptly hanging up on her. 

Rey wanted to chastise him over breaking quarantine but she knew there was no stopping him. She hadn’t been able to stop him all week when he’d shown up at the house at the end of every shift, and Poe and Rose’s complaints had fallen on deaf ears. Ben had a kind of raw power about him that made him very hard to hold off when he had a plan in motion, such was his determination. It was dizzying when his intentions were amorous, intimidating and volatile when he was pissed off.

Rey let him into the house where he gave a cursory nod to Poe and Rose on the couch in the living room. Poe and Rose were used to Ben coming over now, and had agreed to tolerate him and his abrupt manners. Rey had tried to convince them that Ben had many other qualities that made him a good choice for a partner, but she was fighting a losing battle there. Patience and sufferance was the best she could probably hope for between her friends and Ben, and as Rey’s best friend, Rose said she would try, but Poe made no such promises. The animosity between them was palpable, and Ben was doing nothing to endear himself with his current level of agitation. 

“Privacy?” Ben grunted.

“My room, I guess,” Rey replied. Ben pulled Rey by the arm, pushed her through the doorway and closed the door behind him with a slam.

“You’re upset,” Rey observed. 

“You’ve been force healing again. Are you fucking kidding me?” Ben fumed. “How stupid are you, Rey? Did you think I wouldn’t find out? I can literally feel when you do it.”

“I thought at the very least you’d understand why I had to! You know what it’s been like at the hospital. You know how it’s been killing me to hold back. There’s so much suffering, Ben. I can’t take it,” Rey wailed.

“So you take it on yourself!” Ben raged.

“You don’t know what it’s like,” Rey sobbed, tears staining her face. “To have the power to help someone and to consciously choose to let them suffer, or worse, die. And not just one person. One after another after another after another after another.” Rey punctuated her words, pounding her fists on Ben’s chest, sobbing, collapsing against his sturdy frame until her wrapped his arms around her, quieting her sobs.

Eventually Rey’s breathing stopped hitching in her chest and she could speak again.

“It was only a few,” she hiccuped. “Only the ones I absolutely couldn’t stand to lose, but I just can’t stop entirely, and it’s unfair for you to ask me to.”

“Unfair?” Ben pushed her to arms length, gripped her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “Rey, I swore I’d protect you from Snoke, thinking he was the big bad, but right now the biggest threat to you is YOU!” Ben said.

“I’m fine.”

“You can’t lie to me, Rey. I see through you. I feel you. You’re depleted. You’re exhausted,” Ben said, knowingly.

“I can keep going,” Rey claimed, feebly.

“Look at what it’s doing to you, you foolish woman! Don’t you know I can’t stand to watch you suffer? Don’t you care about what that does to me? To be asked to sit back and allow it to happen? I can’t. I won’t,” Ben thundered. “I love you the way you are, Rey, but I do not accept what you’re doing. You still have no idea about the force, you rank, arrogant amateur,” Ben snarled.

Rey fumed at him, shrugging his hands from her shoulders, daggers in her eyes. “You love me? And this is how you tell me? By degrading me in the very next thing you say?”

“Don’t change the fucking subject. I am furious with you and you’re going to listen to me. Now sit down! I’m going to teach you a lesson,” Ben roared.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Rey shouted back. “I have no regrets about what I’ve done and I’ll do it again and you can’t stop me, you big brute.”

“Sit...down,” Ben commanded through clenched teeth, waving his hand.

Rey sat on the bed mechanically. “You bastard. You swore you wouldn’t use the force to control me.”

“Yeah, well, you’re being ridiculous and I can stop you,” Ben shrugged. “I need you to listen to me and it’s either you sit or I tie you to this bed. I thought you’d rather sit, but maybe I would prefer some physical restraints,” Ben contemplated.

“I bet you would,” Rey spat. “Kylo Ren!”

“Don’t ever call me that, Rey, even if you’re angry. You have to trust that Kylo Ren is no more, or we’re not going to make it together. I want to make it together, do you?”

Ben took a chair, turned it backwards and sat, his arms resting on the back of the chair. He gave it a few minutes for the tension and the death glares to subside before continuing, calmly.

“Do you want us to be together?” he asked again.

“Yes,” Rey huffed. “Fine, yes, of course.”

“Do you trust me?” Ben queried.

“Yes,” Rey admitted, reluctantly.

“Then hear me out. Really hear me.”

Rey acquiesced and Ben removed the hold he had on her. He sat beside her on the bed and took her hand.

“Look, Rey, sweetheart. You’re going about this all the wrong way. You’re killing yourself and I’ll tell you how. You’re repairing damage in the people you’re healing. That damage is death, just on a smaller scale, death of the individual cells, rather than the whole being. Your ability to force heal is the ability to counteract that death but doing so will literally suck the life force out of you and kill you, and soon, at the rate you’re going. Do you understand that? You need to stop, and I mean right now.

You can’t heal the virus because it’s made up of the same stuff we are. The force is in all living things, right? And the virus is a living thing. It has no evil intent of it’s own. It’s just living, just doing what it does. You cannot kill the virus with your healing power. You’d only bring it back to life if it was dying.

I know you want to be rid of it. I know you see the destruction it’s causing, and it pains you, but death is a natural part of the force too. You have to accept that with life, there is death. You have to accept the limits of what you can control, the limits of what you should control, for there to be balance.”

Rey didn’t speak for some time. She held Ben’s hand and thought.

“I can’t accept that,” Rey eventually said. “I understand what you mean. I can’t fight the virus with my force power, okay, so I’ll stop, but I can’t accept that letting these people die is outside the realms of my control.

I’ve been so reactive and not proactive. I was so swamped with trying to keep the disease at bay in my patients I never even slowed down long enough to think, not until just now. We need a way to make the virus benign before it can cause the disease in the first place.”

“How would you do that?” Ben asked, curiously.

“With science. By making people immune to it. We need a vaccine...we need antibodies to make one and I know where to find them,” Rey said, excitedly.

“Where?”

“In someone who’s immune already. Me,” Rey said.

“How do you figure you’re immune? Maybe you never caught the virus. You’ve never been sick, never shown any symptoms of it,” Ben pointed out.

“I was exposed to half the infected staff on the ward when I was healing them. I had my hands directly on them. I’ve not shown any symptoms because I think I’m healing myself. There’s balance within me. My force healing is in equilibrium with the virus and my immune system is clearing it, forming antibodies, before I can pass it onto others. That’s why you’ve never gotten sick from me. At least, that’s my theory.”

“Well I don’t know what any of that means,” Ben shrugged. “Does that mean you won’t force heal anyone else?”

“No one else, my love, I promise,” Rey said, and she meant it. She had formulated a better plan.

Ben beamed. “You love me?”

“You loved me first,” Rey smiled back, before settling herself into Ben’s lap and nestling into his chest. “Thank you. You’ve given me new hope.” 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The time to strike is now, Supreme Leader,” Ben said. “The Resistance may soon develop plans for a vaccine. Their lowest ebb has passed.”

“Very well. We shall snuff out their candle of hope before it can gather any heat. Stand by to bring Leia Organa and the girl to me when they concede defeat after my announcement,” Snoke commanded.

“What will you do with them, Supreme Leader?” Ben asked. 

Snoke replied, “Your mother’s fate remains unchanged. As for the girl, her fate will be determined according to her compliance. She will submit to the First Order or she will die. This is not new information, surely.”

“No, master.”

“Then question me no more. Go. Do your duty,” Snoke dismissed.

“Yes, Supreme Leader.” 

Ben shut off the hologram device and began packing up some clothes and a toothbrush from his apartment. Seducing Rey, was a duty he would be more than happy to perform, and she giving every indication of being willing to accept him, having invited him to stay the night after telling him she loved him. 

Ben contemplated what this next move would mean. It would be a great victory for him. He was achieving his goal. She would be his. But what of himself? What would she take? What stake would she claim?

This was most certainly the eve of war, and Ben Solo had never felt less self possessed.


	7. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth is revealed.

“Rey, Ben, you have to come and see this,” Poe said solemnly, his head poking through Rey’s bedroom door.

“Poe! A little privacy?” Rey exclaimed, pulling the sheets up rapidly to cover herself. “What time is it anyway?”

“It’s early. There’s no time to stay in bed, you two. You have to come and see this, right now,” Poe claimed, earnestly.

“See what?” Ben asked, groggily.

“The news report. You’re not going to fucking believe it,” Poe shook his head.

“Okay, just a minute,” Rey said. Poe’s eyes lingered on Rey’s naked shoulders for just a second too long for Rey’s comfort. She threw her pillow at him. “Get out! We’ll be there in a minute.”

“He’s jealous, you know,” Ben murmered, still lying down, eyes closed. “He wants you for himself.”

“Poe? Don’t be stupid,” Rey laughed. “He’s just a friend.”

“A friend with a boner for you,” Ben teased. He rolled over and grabbed Rey by the waist. “Well he can fuck off or fight me for you.” He kissed Rey. She struggled for a second, before allowing it.

“We really should see what he wants,” Rey asserted.

“Just another minute. Whatever it is can wait. I want to savour you the way you are right now,” Ben said. “You’re so beautiful, Rey. I just want you all to myself, just for one minute longer.” He dragged his plump lips across Rey’s flesh.

Rey snuggled into Ben’s chest, her head on his bicep, his long hair tickling her face. Memories of their night together flooded back, warming her cheeks. She smiled, raised her lips to his for a moment, then pushed off his chest. “I’m going to see what’s up.”

Ben groaned, but eventually sat up and also dressed.

Soon, Rey, Ben, Poe and Rose were all standing in the living room, watching the hologram display projected from BB-8.

“It’s being broadcast on loop,” Rose informed them. “It’s being shown everywhere apparently. My comlink has been blowing up. Everyone’s panicking.”

It was a transmission from Snoke.

“I am Snoke, Supreme Leader of the First Order. I come before you all today to officially declare war upon the galaxy. The release of my biological weapon upon Coruscant two weeks ago was my first act of war, a warning to all those who would oppose me. You have seen the destructive power of my virus. Fear me.”

“No,” breathed Rey. “No, no, no.” Ben put his arm around her.

Snoke continued. “To those who oppose me, be warned. More biological weapons are poised to be released across all inhabited planets in the galaxy, should there be any attempts at insurrection. Those who bow before me shall be spared. I have a cure which shall be distributed to those who pledge their allegiance to me as their Supreme Leader.”

“Fuck that,” Poe muttered. “The Resistance will fight.”

“How?” Rey wondered. “This isn’t something you can shoot at from a fighter jet, Poe. If what he says is true, every planet will soon be like Coruscant. He’s got a two week head start. How would you even find the weapons to stop them being deployed?”

“I don’t know...maybe Gen…”

“Leia Organa, newly reinstated head of the Resistance. I expect your concession in twenty-four hours. You will be escorted to concede in my presence by my Knights of Ren. That is all.”

The transmission ended.

“Like I was saying,” Poe continued. “Maybe General Organa has some ideas.” 

“We have to go to her,” Rey said, turning to Ben. “I have to tell her my idea. It’s more important now than ever.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben and Rey entered Leia’s apartment. She was surrounded by holograms, a virtual meeting already in progress.

“Is there any validity to his claims?” Leia asked the room.

“It is almost impossible to determine, General Organa,” responded Admiral Ackbar. “Biological weapons could be deployed by small devices. Anyone could smuggle one onto a planet. It’s conceivable and most likely that he has done what he has claimed.”

“If we resist, what then?” Leia asked.

“We wouldn’t be able to locate the targets before detonation. More people would die than could be counted,” Admiral Holdo responded. “We could mount a strike on Snoke’s ship, but there’s no guarantee we could take the cure by force without it being destroyed in the process, if that is where he’s storing it at all. We have almost no intelligence. We have few methods of defense.”

“I have an idea,” Rey offered. 

Rey explained that she’s likely been exposed to the virus since the beginning of the outbreak, but has survived asymptomatically because of her healing ability. She suggested they take her blood, develop a vaccine from the antibodies from her body’s own immune system, and make enough to distribute to everyone.

“It’s a sound idea, Rey, but we just don’t have the resources, or the time, for that to ever be successful against what Snoke is threatening. We have a deadline of twenty four hours, now twenty three,” replied Leia. “What you’re proposing is a long term strategy. It places too many people at risk while we wait. The collateral damage is too costly.”

Rey nodded. “I tried,” she whispered to Ben. He kissed the top of her head and comforted her.

“Long shots, people. Any ideas?” Leia asks, desperately.

“Any news of Luke Skywalker? Has he been successful in resurrecting the Jedi Order?” 

Leia shook her head. “Now that is desperation,” she sighed. “Luke has been in isolation. His location is unknown. His activities are unknown. There will be no help coming from him.”

“Then we are truly hopeless.” Murmurs of agreement resounded throughout the room.

“No,” Leia declared. “I will concede defeat. We will implore Snoke for mercy, and pray that he does no further damage to the people of the galaxy. That is our only hope.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben and Rey stayed with Leia for the night, despite Leia’s initial protests that she would be fine.

“Why do you think he wants to see you in person, mother?” Ben exclaimed. “It should be obvious to you that either wants you as his political prisoner or worse. I’m not leaving your side.”

“I’m here for you too, General,” Rey offered. “If only for moral support.”

“Thank you, child,” Leia smiled. “That’s very kind of you.”

The following morning, the Knights of Ren, Snoke’s force sensitive warrior enclave, filed into Leia’s apartment, their armor clad, muscular frames imposing over the space. Until yesterday, the Knights of Ren had been shrouded in secrecy. Now Snoke was placing them on full display, a show of might, all pretense dropped.

Leia stood, gracefully going with them, composed in defeat. She was almost to the door, when one of the knights spoke.

“Kylo Ren, the Supreme Leader orders you bring the girl.”

Ben nodded, obediently taking Rey by the arm. 

Rey turned, her eyes wide with incredulity. “Ben? What’s going on?”

Ben’s expression darkened. “You have to come with me now, Rey. Snoke commands it.” He reached down and unhooked Rey’s blaster from her belt, disarming her.

Tears welled in Rey’s eyes. She looked to Leia, who suddenly looked utterly defeated. “You’re still working for him?” she gasped. “Since when?”

Ben said nothing, but pulled Rey towards the door. 

“Oh,” Rey choked. “You never stopped. All this time?” Rey tried to release her arm from Ben’s grip, but he held tight. “No, no! You monster. How could you? How could you do that to me? You promised me you’d defect.”

“No, Rey, I promised you I’d try, and I did. I failed,” Ben replied, expressionless. 

Rey fought, hitting and kicking. 

“Rey, stop,” he commanded, deflecting an elbow thrown at his face. He pulled up the blaster and held it to her face. Leia gasped. Rey immediately quieted. Ben lamented, “You can’t win. Not against the dark side. Not against Snoke. It’s futile to try.”

Tears fell as Rey sobbed. “It was all a manipulation, wasn’t it? To make me love you...as if loving you could make me compromise myself. All you’ve done is be cruel. I wish I had never met you. You’re the very essence of betrayal.”

“You have to submit or you’ll be killed,” Ben warned. “Don’t make me responsible for your death, Rey.”

“Go to hell,” Rey spat, venomously. “I’ll never turn to the dark side. Not for you. Not ever.”

“We’ll see,” Ben murmured as he ripped Rey’s arm forward, dragging her outside to where the transport awaited.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Snoke sat on his throne, the pompous smugness of imminent victory playing on his twisted features.

Eight Praetorian Guards in their red uniforms were posted around the outskirts of the throne room, their high tech weapons shouldered. Ben flickered his eyes over them, before pushing Rey forward. She was still resisting him.

Leia walked in front, surrounded by the Knights of Ren, but she moved with the regency with which she had always carried herself. Leia did not bend before others, or show fear in the face of danger, and she certainly did not thrash and shout the way that Rey did. 

“Quiet the girl, Kylo Ren,” commanded Snoke. “The General and I have matters to discuss.”

Ben used the force to silence Rey, to still her struggles.

“I have come to concede defeat on behalf of the Resistance,” Leia began. “Our only conditions are that you release the cure for the virus to the Healers on Coruscant, and to the people of the galaxy.”

“You are hardly in the position to demand conditions, are you not, General?” Snoke smirked. “You have conceded defeat. How I rule my empire shall be at my own determination.”

“Then I implore you,” cried Leia, “for the sake of humanity.”

Snoke snorted. “Knights of Ren, take the girl. Kylo Ren, it’s time for you to show your mother the humanity of the dark side. Strike her down. I command it.”

Ben released Rey, who was forced to kneel before the Knights of Ren, who stood surrounding her. He walked slowly to his mother’s side. “Ben, no,” Rey whispered.

He drew his lightsaber. Leia would not look at him. She simply whispered, “Snoke has blinded you, Ben. Search his mind. See the truth. Please, son, you cannot refuse my dying request.”

Ben closed his eyes, he searched, reaching out for Snoke’s thoughts. They came effortlessly. Snoke was gloating, he was so assured of Ben’s fealty and the anticipation of his near victory, and having it all come so easily with such a simple deception. Snoke had claimed the virus was a bioweapon to incite fear. He planned to kill the leader of the Resistance and take ultimate power throughout the galaxy unchallenged. Moreover, he planned to take Rey, by force, to experiment upon her to manufacture his own cure for the deadly disease he had never even had a hand in creating. Rey, who was once promised to be Ben’s mate, would be relegated to being a lab rat until she would be killed when Snoke was through with her, and Ben would still be an indentured servant contracted to kill and maim at every command. The killing of his own mother was to be the defining step in Ben’s demise and damnation from which he could never return, and Snoke anticipated it gleefully. 

Ben exhaled loudly.

“You hesitate, Kylo Ren,” called Snoke. “Strike. Strike now!”

Leia turned to look at Ben, finally recognising a glimmer of her long lost son. Their eyes met in mutual understanding; they were going to have to escape together. He pulled his cape back, revealing Rey’s blaster at his hip. He flicked his eyes down to it to indicate for Leia to take it. She nodded and grabbed it quickly, shooting at Snoke, wounding him. 

Ben then turns and blasts back the Knights of Ren with his force power. 

Rey screams.

The Praetorian Guards advance, weapons drawn. Ben advances on one holding a staff weapon tipped with swords and disarms him, quickly stabbing him through the chest with his lightsaber. He pulls the discarded weapon from the floor with the force and quickly throws it to Rey. “Fight!”

Rey takes up the weapon and prepares to hold off the Knights of Ren, who are currently scattered to the floor.

Snoke does not move from his throne. He watches the battle ensue, bemused, confident of the victory of his soldiers against this minor insurrection. Kylo Ren would be made to suffer at his leisure. For now, the trio are greatly outnumbered.

Ben retreats back to Leia and they stand back to back, Leia shooting the Praetorian Guards as they advance, while Ben protects her, deflecting blows. Leia shoots for the legs, hobbling two. She throws another two back with the force.

Ben fights in close range with his attackers. Leia sees two of the Knights of Ren rise and bear down on Rey. She shoots them both, giving Rey a chance to retreat, but four more have risen from the floor. Rey is being backed into a corner by three of the knights, but she appears ferocious, striking out with all her might, only to be deflected by their blades.

“Don’t hold back, Rey. Fight to kill,” Ben shouts above the clash of weapon upon weapon.

Rey strikes out, catching a knight under the jaw. He falls. Another advances to take his place.

Ben returns his attention to his own battles. Ben kicks out at one guard, wheels on another, grabbing him by the back of the helmet, throwing him into the first. He strikes through them both as they tumble together, putting them both down, his light saber sizzling into the floor. He dodges another’s swinging blow, rights himself and advances. They trade blows. Ben pulls at him with the force, sliding the guard’s chest onto his raised blade before withdrawing it swiftly, allowing the guard to drop like a stone.

Ben and Leia switch places, Leia taking aim at an advancing guard, dropping him to the floor at close range while Ben tackles two guards at once. He dodges one, strikes his blade down at the other forcing him back, then swipes cleanly, slicing through the guard’s abdomen.

Rey has struck out at another Knight of Ren, stabbing him. She kicks him off her blade before escaping her corner to gain better ground. She works her way towards Ben and Leia, the Knights of Ren in pursuit.

Leia lays down fire at the remaining Praetorian Guards and Knights of Ren, while Ben and Rey close ranks.

Ben locks swords with a Praetorian Guard, another advancing quickly. He wrenches both swords down to deflect the third, struggling to keep them at bay. Leia, positioned behind Ben, can’t get a clean shot. She fires at a Knight of Ren advancing from the flanks twice in quick succession. He drops, leaving Rey to fend off the final knight.

Ben heaves all three swords up, throwing back his two assailants. Leia fires on one and misses, but Ben spins and decapitates him as he is distracted by the blaster fire.

Both Rey and Ben fend off their final attackers, deflecting blows. Leia uses the force to wrong foot Rey’s assailant pulling his legs out from under him and Rey stabs him with a roar, thrusting the staff into his body, while Ben beats back his attacker, striking down with brute force again and again until the Praetorian Guard looses his grip on his weapon. Ben strikes one more definitive blow, the thud of the guard’s carcass the final punctuation to the battle.

“Enough.”

Snoke waves one hand in an almost bored fashion, disarming Leia and Rey with a tug of the force, and holds Ben by the throat in a force choke with the other hand.

Snoke sighs. He addresses Rey. “Look at what you’ve done to my apprentice. He was perfectly serviceable before you got your hands on him, and now look. Mutiny. For what? Love? Pathetic.”

Rey blinks. Ben did this for her, she realises.

“Now, girl, you can watch him die,” Snoke announces. 

“NO!!” cries Rey. Rey reaches out with the force, pulling the discarded blaster towards her, she aims and shoots Snoke in the arm. It sends Snoke reeling long enough for him to drop Ben, who takes up his lightsaber and takes a running leap at Snoke, plunging the saber into him and dragging it through his body as he falls back to the ground. Snoke slumps, pulled forward by the dragging motion. Ben twirls the lightsaber in his hand before striking a downward blow, Snoke’s head tumbling to the floor.

“Oh Ben,” Leia murmured, horror struck. “What have you done?”

“We needed him!” cried Rey, destraught. “He had the cure to the virus. That was our last hope.”

“You should be grateful,” Ben protested. “I just saved you!” 

“I was willing to be sacrificed if it meant a chance for a cure!” Rey screamed. “You save me, unbidden, at the expense of how many? We’ll never get a cure now. You doomed all to save two?” Rey asked.

“Yes.”

“Then you’re worse than your grandfather,” Rey accused. “Who even are you, Ben Solo or Kylo Ren?”

“Search your feelings, Rey. You know who I am,” Ben said.

“Right now, there’s little difference.” Rey spat, “I hate you.”

“I know,” Ben replied. “Look, we don’t have time to argue and I don’t have time to explain. We need to get off this ship before it’s discovered what we’ve done,” Ben demanded.

“So you’re not going to try to take Snoke’s throne now you’ve defeated him?” Leia asked. “You were his successor. If you’re still in conflict about your devotion to the dark side you need to choose right now. This is the moment, Ben.”

Ben cocked his head, bemused at his mother. “You think I used you both to help me defeat Snoke so I could take over the First Order? That would have been a good plan,” Ben observed. “I wish I’d thought of it. No. This was just me correcting my mistakes. You were right, mother. I was blinded. I no longer am.”

“You so easily relinquish the dark side of the force?” Leia probed.

“You underestimate me.”

“I’m not underestimating you, son. Your power is indisputable. What I question, as you know, is how you will choose to use that power.”

“Ugh, and we’re back to the same old argument,” Ben moaned. “I can’t fucking believe it. Okay, so I fucked up. I admit it. Can you berate me later, please, mother? Now is not the time. We’re going to have Storm Troopers down on our heads any minute and I don’t fancy fighting our way out of a battalion. If you value your own safety, and Rey’s, don’t fucking argue for once and let’s go!”

“Fine.”

“Rey?”

“Fine. But this isn’t over, Ben Solo.”


	8. Finding the Balance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben strive to find a way forward.

“Snoke never had a vaccine or a cure,” Ben explained to Leia and Rey on the ship they’d just stolen from the First Order. “He simply used the outbreak opportunistically as a fear-mongering tactic. That’s why he had me stationed on Coruscant for so long. He needed to know the damage done would be terrifying enough. He wanted my first hand account. He never intended for anyone on Coruscant to be cured. He also had no power to infect other worlds. It was a bluff. There were never any bioweapons.”

“You’re certain?” Leia asked.

“Yes. You had some inkling yourself, didn’t you? You knew something was false,” Ben asked of Leia.

“I did, but I couldn’t see it clearly enough to discern it. Snoke was powerful with the force. It would take someone more powerful than I to see through his mental defenses. I knew only you could,” Leia said. Ben’s mouth twitched at the compliment. “But you lacked the motivation,” she continued. “I needed you to see what you’d become willfully blind to. Our discussions at the hospital proved to me how clouded your judgment was,” Leia said, sadly.

“I could have killed you, mother. I was torn between loyalties, you knew that. I wanted you to die peacefully of natural causes, not by my hand. You put yourself at great risk, gambling that I would turn away from Snoke at the last minute,” Ben chastised.

“I would do it again. You’ve seen the light now. It was worth it,” Leia asserted. 

Rey was sitting sullenly, her back turned to the two of them, her fingers playing absentmindedly with her lips.

“You’re quite the fighter, Rey,” Leia observed. “I doubt we would have made it out of there without you.”

“I should never have been there in the first place.” Rey stood and walked out of the room, shooting Ben a dirty look as she went.

“Give her time, son,” Leia advised. “She’s been through a lot. You put her through a lot. You’re lucky she’s resilient and resourceful. I believe she’ll forgive you, as you know I will always forgive you, but she’s also grieving. She had hoped for a cure for the virus and now that hope is dashed.”

“Snoke wanted to take her from me. He’d wanted me to seduce her to the dark side and promised she was to be mine, but had no intention of honouring his promise in the end. It was the final straw, the one intolerable condition I could not live with. He’d wanted to experiment on her for a cure for the virus so that he could immunise his armies. Then he could have truly used the virus as a bioweapon, no pretenses. He would have turned her into a lab rat. He would have tortured her and discarded her. I couldn’t allow it. To him she was nothing, meant nothing, but she means everything to me. He had to die. She had to be saved.” 

“You really do love her, don’t you?” Leia enquired.

“Yes,” Ben confessed.

“Enough to let her go, if she chooses?” Leia tested.

“I…” Ben hesitated, rubbing his face in frustration. “I fucked up so bad. I was so desperate to have her, I didn’t care what I had to do to get her or what it would do to her. I was wrong, so wrong.”

“I’m glad you see that now,” Leia agreed. “That’s good, Ben. That’s a good start.”

“I would rather she choose me than force her.”

“That’s as it should be,” Leia agreed. 

“I don’t want to let her go,” Ben professed, quietly. 

“You must,” Leia insisted. “Then let her see your merits as your own man, for better or worse. Be patient. Give it time. She will make her own choice when she’s ready.”

Ben nodded solemnly. “I know. You’re right. I’ll back off.”

“Do you really think she holds the key to a cure?” Leia asked. “We’re still going to need her if she does.”

“Rey seems to think she does, and Snoke thought so too. I...I don’t know. I wouldn’t even know what to do if she did.”

“I do,” Rey called from the doorway where she’d been eavesdropping. “Or at the very least, I know someone who knows someone who might know where to start. I need Doctor Bliss. Come on, Ben, take us back to Coruscant. Time is lives.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doctor Bliss listened to Rey’s theory, about how she may have been infected but fought off the illness itself and how she may be a good supply of antibodies that could be used to develop a vaccine. 

“We can run some tests, absolutely,” Doctor Bliss agreed. “We’ll take nasal and throat swabs to detect for the virus itself, and we can take some bloods to see if you’ve developed antibodies.”

“That’s all?” asked Ben, surprised.

“What were you expecting?” Doctor Bliss queried. “We don’t do invasive procedures unless they’re absolutely necessary.”

“How quickly can we get this underway?” Rey asked.

“I’ll have one of the healers take the tests immediately, but it could take a few days to get the results,” Doctor Bliss said.

“You can’t put a rush on it?” Rey asked.

“That is with a rush on it, Miss Rey,” Doctor Bliss admitted. “These tests have only recently been developed and implemented. The demand is extremely high. The testing droids are at capacity. In the meantime, I’ll network with our research scientists to see if they can start adapting some of the protocols for development of monoclonal antibody therapies to treat the virus, just in case it turns out you do have blood serum antibodies to the virus. We’ll need some extra blood to send to them so there’s no delays when the results are in.”

“Absolutely,” Rey agreed. “Anything you need.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben, Rey, Poe and Rose all sat around the table eating dinner. Rey couldn’t remember the last time she’d had all of the important people in her life gathered together at one time. It had been three months since Snoke’s death. Life hadn’t exactly gone back to normal. They were developing a new normal.

Quarantine procedures were still in place in Coruscant and unfortunately the virus had escaped the planet surface as ships had fled before the lockdown, transmitted by the passengers on ships, infecting inhabitants of other planets, making it a galaxy wide pandemic. It seemed to be the more densely inhabited planets that were suffering the worst. At least the other planets had some prior warning and procedures to follow to slow the spread of the disease while the scientists tried to develop their vaccines. No planet had been hit worse than Coruscant.

The vaccine from Rey’s blood showed promise and was in the process of being distributed to the people but from the results of the clinical trials it only seemed to be compatible with humanoid species. Still, it was a template from which other vaccines could be developed for other species. The secret was in finding patients who had been infected but had recovered and collecting enough blood for the scientists to work with. The pressure had been taken off of Rey to be everyone’s saviour. Anyone could be the source of a cure. She could just live her life, working as a healer when she was rostered on, and spending time with her loved ones when she was not, like everybody else.

That wasn’t to say it was easy in the current company. There were tensions at the table. Rey had forgiven Ben for his actions eventually. His plan to seduce her to the dark side had been rebounded upon him. She wouldn’t have turned dark because she loved him, yet it was his love for her that had pulled him back to the light. Out of the danger of Snoke’s influence, and finally taking some sage advice from Leia, Ben had become more balanced. Rey could sense the change in him daily. He even carried himself differently, taller, like a great weight had been lifted. Over time, Rey found that she could trust him again. She also felt more attuned to her own powers the more time she spent with him. The force between them was strong. It had been a hard connection to try to break when she had been angry with him, much to her chagrin. She had wanted to push him away at first, but her gut told her to give him a second chance, and now that time had passed, all she felt was the draw of him. Their bond had flourished.

Poe and Rose could not forgive as easily and still had their suspicions, which they aired frequently. That was why it had taken so long for Rey to gather them all together. She wanted them all to make peace before she moved out the following weekend. She had completed her internship as a healer and could now afford a place of her own, and she and Ben had decided to try living together. She had hoped her friends would feel welcome in her new place, but the way the evening was progressing, it was going to take a bit more time and effort on both sides.

“So, the First Order has announced their new official leader,” Poe said between bites of food. “They played that close to their chest for a while. It’s some guy named Armitage Hux.”

“Yeah, I know the guy,” Ben confessed. “He’s ambitious. Ruthless.”

“You think he’ll declare war?” Poe asked.

Ben shook his head. “Snoke fucked up the First Order’s plans when he tried to use the virus as a tactic. They hadn’t rallied enough troops or resources to declare war at that stage. Once they were revealed, it gave the Resistance time to prepare for counter attack. He may declare war, but he’s on the back foot if he tries. He has no tactical advantage anymore. Everyone knows what the First Order is now. They’ll never rise to power without a good fight.”

“And have you decided which side of that fight you’re going to be on?” needled Poe. “Or do we all need to be watching our backs?”

“Poe, don’t,” warned Rey. She could feel the anger rising in Ben. “Come on, Ben. Let’s go to my room.”

Rey cleared away her dishes, Ben following suit, and they retreated to Rey’s bedroom. 

“It’s a fair question, Rey,” Poe called out after them. Ben slammed the door behind them.

“I fucking hate that guy!” he huffed. 

“I know,” Rey replied, stroking Ben’s face, before kissing him. “He’s just pushing your buttons. He’s a shit-stirrer. He can’t help himself.”

“Well he’s lucky I can, or he’d be missing a fucking limb,” Ben growled, his fingers absentmindedly brushing his lightsaber. 

“Shhhh,” Rey coddled. “I know you don’t mean that. Not really. You guys butt heads, but you’d never hurt him. Come on, come lie down with me.”

Ben permitted Rey to lie in his arms, she running gentle soothing fingertips over his chest. “We’re past all that choosing sides stuff now, right? There’s no more masters or Supreme Leaders. You fought for and earned your freedom to be your own man. You need not fight for anyone unless you choose. You don’t even have to work with Leia if you don’t want to. You could abstain, remain neutral. It’s nobody’s business but your own. Why do you let Poe bother you so much?”

“Because there’s some truth to what he says about me. I still feel the darkness, Rey. It’s out there, lurking, waiting. I fear one day it will come for me again,” Ben whispered.

“Then train me,” Rey insisted. “Train me to use the force. I’ll stand with you. We’ll fight back the dark side together.”

“You trust me? Trust that I won’t tempt you to the dark side?” Ben asked.

“I see how hard you’ve worked to recover yourself, Ben. That day on Snoke’s ship was a turning of the tide. I don’t believe you want that of me anymore. Besides, if you tried, you’d fail. I’m too good,” Rey bragged with a confident shrug. 

“Don’t fool yourself, Rey, you’re not all good. I’ve seen your road rage,” Ben teased. “It’s the first thing I loved about you. But I like the sound of that. I’ll train you up to be my equal. You’d balance me out and have my back.” He nodded to himself, excited at the prospect.

“You’ve never really had someone to just be your friend, have you, Ben?” Rey mused, stroking a stray hair out of his eyes. “No wonder you’ve been so lost. You don’t have to be a hero or the villain. It’s okay for you to just be a man. I love you the way you are. I’m glad you’re mine.”

“I’m never letting you go now, you know that, right?” Ben said, holding Rey tight. 

“Is that a threat, or a promise? Rey asked, mischief twinkling in her eyes.

“It’s all shades of grey, Rey,” Ben replied. “Shades of grey.”

“Hmm,” Rey hummed happily. “I wouldn’t have you any other way.”


End file.
